Thousands of nurses and midwives have walked off the job in NSW on Tuesday in protest against staffing levels that they say have pushed an already stretched system to its limit during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Staff travelled from across Sydney and beyond to march through the city's CBD to Parliament House with rallies also taking place in regional parts of NSW.
The NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association defied an order issued on Monday by the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to call off the industrial action.
The intervention came after the NSW government took the matter to the IRC, arguing that the planned strike would disrupt health services across the state.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, NSW Health said the strike action had caused "minor disruptions and delays to health services throughout the state".
"These disruptions and delays mainly related to elective surgeries and some community health services," a spokesperson said.
"Despite the strike action, instigated by the union in defiance of the Industrial Relations Commission's orders, our hospitals maintained life preserving staff."
The union had organised for a skeleton staff to remain on duty to ensure the sickest patients were cared for.
Crisis talks between the nurses union and Health Minister Brad Hazzard yesterday failed to resolve the stalemate in negotiations over pay and staffing levels in hospitals.
The Nurses and Midwives' Association said the intervention came too late as members across the state had already voted to strike, and they needed to "stand tall" to express their frustrations.
Mr Hazzard said he was disappointed at the strike but added it was "not going to stop us working together" to find a solution.
"We need to have enough nurses every day to make sure the nurses are not frazzled," he said.
"We're in agreement, its just a matter of how we actually approach this formula. There has to be a ratio, it's just how this ratio works."
Speaking this morning, nurse Kathy Triggol said health workers "deserve better".
"Most of the time, the staff are overworked and stressed and it's just not fair. We don't ask for much, we're asking for it to be fair," she said.
She said the last few years had been "dreadful" with many wards short-staffed.
"It's gotten to the stage that every hospital is the same," Ms Triggol said.
"We're talking about nurses in the ICU and emergency department who can't even stop to go to the toilet. It's just ridiculous."
Wollongong midwife Emma Gedge boarded a bus to Sydney this morning along with 150 colleagues.
"We're drowning...we've been drowning for a long time and COVID has really just pressed that point home that this health system is just not working," she said.
"As nurses and midwives, we don't walk away from our patients lightly and this really rips our heart out to have to do this."
In Orange, in the state's central west, about 60 nurses marched up the main street where a crowd watched on and motorists honked their support.
Union member Grace Langlands said she was "proud" to be there.
"We're running into double times, overtime, we're doing a morning into a late, a late into a night, doing stupid hours, because we want our patients to be OK, but that's not OK anymore," she said.
"We need to put ourselves first so we can provide the appropriate care, with the appropriate number and the appropriate safety."
Ms Langlands said some union members stayed at work to ensure patient safety.
On the state's south coast, about 200 nurses rallied in Bega's Littleton Gardens.
Sarah Anderson, a midwife and nurse based in the Bega Valley, said the system was breaking young staff.
"I became a registered nurse in 1983...and I've been a midwife since 1986," she said.
"I am appalled by the patronising attitude of our government towards nurses, telling us that everything is OK. It is not OK, I have never seen it worse."
Nurses in different districts have chosen to strike for between four and 24 hours, with the union saying that timings have been staggered to lessen disruption for patients.
Skeleton staff have remained to treat critically unwell patients and preserve life.
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the protesters are calling for pay rises and legislated staff-to-patient ratios, similar to those in Queensland and Victoria.
The union said the changes were needed to prevent a further loss of qualified health professionals.
A spokesperson for NSW Health acknowledged that staff have "worked tirelessly during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic".
A statement said that the "flexible staff to patient ratio system" currently in place ensured "the right number of nurses in the right place at the right time".
