Nurse Managers from across the Western Plains took industrial action this morning, striking due to rampant understaffing at their facilities. 

Staff from Bourke, Cobar, Lightning Ridge, Nyngan, Warren, Tottenham, Trundle and Tullamore hospitals took the unprecedented stop work action for two hours this morning (December 21), voicing their outrage at staffing issues in local facilities. 

NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) General Secretary Brett Holmes said the level of desperation of nursing staff in the Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD) ran deep, and warranted urgent action by the NSW government. 

“We’ve got our senior nurse managers…all struggling right now to fill holes in nursing rosters. That’s also being compounded by growing nurse vacancies WNSWLHD hasn’t recruited to,” Mr Holmes said. 

In Lightning Ridge, the shortage is alarmingly evident, with over 140 vacant nursing shifts over the coming month. Nyngan and Warren shadow their concerns with a resounding 90 unfilled shifts in their upcoming rosters. 

“These Health Service Managers (HSM) and senior nurse managers have very real fears that patients’ lives are at risk and their own professional registrations are being put in jeopardy, given the volume of unfilled shifts,” Mr Holmes said. 

WNSWLHD Acting Executive Officer Mark Spittal said that the health authority is understanding of their frustration. 

“Our heart goes out to them…this has been a hugely tough year for everybody in the community and it’s been extremely tough in the health district,” Mr Spittal said.

“The reality is in rural health districts, any day of the week on of the challenges is simply being able to fill our rosters and keep the doors open, and we are hugely committed to making sure that we can do that,” he said.

Mr Spittal said that NSW Health is working with bigger regional hospitals and other health districts to secure staff to fill local positions and build numbers that better sustain the workforce. 

“A number of staff have already come forward to cancel their leave to go to some of these sites to support the nurses to keep the rosters going,” Mr Spittal said.

The local health district said they will continue to work to ensure that staff have support, and that communities continue to have access to the health services that they need. 

Local staffing shortages have appeared time and time again during the ongoing senate inquiry into rural and regional access to healthcare, although the findings and recommendations from those investigations won’t be presented until April 2022. 

“We wrote to the government last month outlining the dire staffing situation in rural and remote NSW and to date we have not had a response. The circumstances are devastating for the nursing workforce, which is also grappling with pandemic fatigue,” Mr Holmes said. 

The senior nurse managers who took the stop work action are seeking a meeting with the premier, Deputy Premier and Health Minister to escalate their concerns. 

Among their requests are calls for the state government to introduce statewide nurse-to-patient ratios on every shift, including a minimum of at least three nurses in every rural and remote facility, two of whom must be registered nurses with first-line emergency care qualifications.