Covid could overwhelm ?chronically understaffed? health facilities in western NSW

Health facilities in western New South Wales are "chronically understaffed" and the situation could be exacerbated as Covid-19 cases climb in regional local health districts before the holiday period.

The NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association raised the alarm about growing nurse vacancies in the state's west with communities such as Lightning Ridge left with more than 140 vacant nursing shifts in their multi-purpose services over the coming month.

The widespread inability to fill rising nurse vacancies and critical gaps in rosters led to senior nurse managers in 12 health facilities across western NSW taking the unprecedented action of stopping work for two hours on Tuesday.

This problem comes as Peta Rutherford, the chief executive of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia, said there were continued outbreaks and increasing numbers of Covid-19 cases in regional Australia, with the expectation that cases will rise as more people travel during the holiday period.

Brett Holmes, the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association general secretary, said nurses, particularly nurse managers, were doing excessive additional hours, working unbroken periods of more than 18 days straight, often more than 16 hours a day.

The situation was at "the point of totally exhausting the nursing workforce".

"These services can't continue to operate without minimum nursing staff levels and we can't fill even those," Holmes said. "These facilities are chronically understaffed.