Nurses protested outside the hospital last week to draw attention to their concerns across wards including the emergency department.

NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association member organiser Jo-Anne McKeough said the association had raised concerns with the Hunter New England Local Health District and would continue to do so.

A spokesperson from Hunter New England Health this week had no comment to make.

Ms McKeough said nurses had been left with a stressful staffing situation, particularly at night.

“There are only two registered nurses in the facility at night,” she said.

“Given there is a fairly busy maternity unit and one registered nurse must be in the maternity unit, that leaves a registered nurse to cover the emergency department and the general ward.”

She said when the after-hours nurses started their shift, there were often already patients waiting in the emergency department, and the nurses had no clerical assistance during the shift.

“In the general ward at night, they are looking after 25 beds, with an average of 19 patients,”Ms McKeough said.

“There is a whole mix of people. You could have palliative care, you could have children, you could have people that require cardiac monitoring.

“You could have elderly people and patients with dementia. It’s a mixed bag of patients who could require lots of help.

“That is impossible. It is a real problem and it doesn’t meet the minimum standard.”

Ms McKeough said the problem had increased with the growing population in Gunnedah, which meant more sick people and more people having babies.

Tamworth nursing staff have also been taking industrial action about staffing levels at Tamworth Hospital.

“There have been a lot of local meetings at Tamworth,” Ms McKeough said.

“Not so much at Gunnedah – issues have come to a head quite quickly there.

“We have advised the Hunter New England Health executive twice in writing about the urgency of the situation.”

She said the association would continue to campaign for more staff at both Gunnedah and Tamworth hospitals.