NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association Port Macquarie Base Hospital Branch members take two-hour stop work action

The branch is frustrated about the state government's failure to implement nurse-to-patient ratios and it raised concerns about nurses being overworked and burning out.

NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association Port Macquarie Base Hospital Branch president Mark Brennan said they wanted to send a message to the NSW Premier, the health minister and the local member that members were not happy here in Port Macquarie.

"We are doing this for our community and we really need the community to get behind us," he said.

Mr Brennan said nurses at the base hospital were overworked and burning out, there was constant "bed block" and surgical procedures were being cancelled because of lack of beds.

He said there was an influx of people moving to the beautiful Mid-North Coast and the infrastructure was not keeping up with the population.

"The base hospital is now too small for the population we have in Port Macquarie," Mr Brennan said.

"It needs to be expanded and we need more nurses on the floor."

The branch supports the association's broader push for nurse-to-patient ratios in NSW.

Mr Brennan said nurse-to-patient ratios had been proven to save money and lead to better patient health outcomes.

Mid North Coast Local Health District chief executive Stewart Dowrick said the Industrial Relations Commission had ordered the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association not to engage in any kind of industrial action, with the orders in place until June 30, 2021.

He said patient need determined nursing staff levels and different patients had different care needs.

"There should not be a one size fits all approach to staffing for complex medical and clinical situations," Mr Dowrick said.

The current nursing hours per patient day staffing system is a flexible ratio which enables nursing staff to be redeployed where patient need is greatest.

"Nursing hours are not rationed out on a daily basis to each patient," he said.

"The complexity of a hospital and its patients, as well as the professional judgement of nurses and managers is what decides staffing levels.

"This approach allows for staff to be redeployed where needed. The award also provides for local consultation processes to discuss workload issues."

For areas where the nursing hours per patient day system does not apply, the award contains nursing workload principles that support decision making regarding staffing levels.

Mr Dowrick said there were more nurses and midwives in NSW public hospitals than at any other time in history.

"The NSWNMA has lodged an extensive claim that seeks a new ratio model that is more rigid than the current award ratio framework adopted by NSW Health and the association with the support of the IRC in 2010/11,"he said.

The union had sought a 4.7 per cent pay increase.

Mr Dowrick said NSW Health had not accepted this claim and instead offered a wage increase consistent with the government's statewide public sector wages policy and which reflected the prevailing economic conditions more broadly.

NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association general secretary Brett Holmes said seeking safe staffing through shift-by-shift ratios and fair pay was not excessive.

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