Speaking at the rally Labor leader Luke Foley restated his support for better ratios.

Sylvia Moon, NSWNMA branch president at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital welcomed the commitment by Luke Foley to better ratios for country hospitals.

“I was pretty excited about Labor’s announcement to support ratios. I feel like they are really supporting us. It would be great for our area and our hospital, for our staff and our patients.

“We were really happy when ratios were won in the city. We (in the country) definitely helped out there and I just think it is now our time. It’s the whole state’s time to get ratios.

“I was happy the issue of ratios was brought into parliament in Question Time. Premier Gladys Berejiklian says there are a heap of nurses but I don’t know where these nurses are because they are not in our hospital.

“We’re a heap of nurses down and we are opening new extra beds that weren’t originally funded and we have to staff them which puts a lot of pressure on us. We’re getting multiple texts from six in the morning asking us to work overtime.

“Lucky for her and her government she’s got great nursing staff committed to the hospital, committed to the patients, committed to the town.”

Where are all these nurses and midwives Gladys?

Tracey Coyte, an EN from Cooma Hospital who attended the rally outside parliament, says the disparity in ratios between the country and city hospitals is “absolutely disgusting”.

“The area we encompass goes all the way to Canberra – a hundred kilometres away and then beyond Delegate and Bombala.”

The hospitals in Delegate and Bombala have been converted into Multi Purpose Services leading to an increase in the workload at Cooma. Patient demand also spikes drastically during the ski season, she says.

“At the end of the day if someone is injured in a ski accident or a mountain biking accident in the summer months they come to Cooma hospital.

“I can’t see why we can’t have equal if not better nurse-to-patient ratios than the bigger hospitals in the city which might have another hospital in the next suburb.”

Tracey says she has been disappointed with the position of her local MP John Barilaro on ratios and also to Gladys Berejiklian’s reaction during Question Time.

“She’s willing to say – and she said the same thing to me when I met her in Cooma – ‘Yes Tracey, I understand. My mother was a nurse. That’s why our government has put on a thousand extra nurses’.

“I said: ‘Gladys, not in Cooma’.”

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