As of Tuesday this week a total of 451 beds in 62 hospitals had been closed.

More bed closures are also expected at Maitland and Bathurst hospitals tomorrow. NSW Nurses Association members at Katoomba, Sydney, Belmont, Royal Newcastle, Fairfield and Campbelltown hospitals will meet later in the week to plan bed closures at their facilities. All emergency services are being maintained.

On January 4 the NSW Nurses Association (NSWNA ) started closing one in four beds in public hospitals and community health services, as part of the ‘one nurse to four patients - the way to safe patient care’ campaign. The campaign is calling for the introduction of mandated, minimum nurse to patient ratios in public hospitals and community health services.

NSW Nurses Association’s acting general secretary, Judith Kiejda, said nurses and midwives are astonished at the negative approach to nurse-topatient ratios and safer patient care being adopted by the NSW Health Minister, Carmel Tebbutt.

“Ms Tebbutt has rejected ratios, but has no alternative, tested plan for giving the people of NSW a guaranteed minimum level of nursing care when in hospital or using a community health service,”Ms Kiejda said.

“We have a situation in many NSW hospital wards where the nurse numbers are inadequate and the number of actual registered nurses on each shift is at dangerously low levels. This must be reversed by introducing a staffing system that guarantees a minimum number of nurses and ensures those nurses are fully-qualified, registered nurses.

In most general wards that is a minimum of one nurse to four patients”, said Judith Kiejda.

“Ms Tebbutt’s claims that ratios are inflexible are nonsense. They provide a minimum and the Health Department can add as many nurses as they think they need above that guaranteed minimum. But we can no longer tolerate NSW patients being put at risk by reductions in nurse numbers in individual patient settings, especially registered nurse numbers,” Ms Kiejda said.