NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association (NSWNMA) members will rally in their own time outside Blue Mountains District ANZAC Memorial Hospital to call for safe staffing across all specialty areas.
Members of the NSWNMA Blue Mountains Mental Health Branch will highlight short staffing issues off the back of a historic case filed in the Supreme Court last week alleging widespread and repeated staffing breaches by the state.
Nurses are demanding the current Nursing Hours Per Patient Day staffing model is replaced with a safe shift by shift ratios system.
"Despite local nurses' best efforts when they're working short-staffed, the current system is not delivering safe care to patients when they need it most," Mr Whaites said.
"All other mainland states have committed to a ratios system, yet NSW patients are being denied the care they deserve. This has to change, or we need the government to change."
NSWNMA members from Blue Mountains Hospital Branch and Blue Mountains Mental Health Branch will also call on all election candidates to support the introduction of a safe nursing and midwifery ratio system on every shift, in every hospital in NSW.
The action is set to take place today - Monday March 20 - at 3.30pm outside Blue Mountains District Hospital, 1 Woodlands Rd, Katoomba.
This is the second protest action taken in as many months.
Read more: Legal action, Burnt out and threatening to quit, Exhausted and anxious.
