NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has told an ex-nurse he was "disappointed" she had left the profession, after he was asked for answers about the health care system on Friday.
The woman, who asked Mr Perrottet to outline a plan for exhausted healthcare workers, said she witnessed "constant" staff shortages, worker stress and was left feeling "broken".
"You keep saying NSW has a strong healthcare system," she said.
"Three weeks ago I was delivering babies at a major hospital in Sydney and what I saw there I would not necessarily describe as strong."
The woman said she made the difficult decision to quit, despite loving being a nurse.
"The system was weak," she said.
"They need answers, they need a plan going forward, what is that plan?"
The question comes ahead of planned industrial action by nurses and midwives in NSW next week, the first statewide strike in almost a decade.
"It's disappointing you've said you've left the profession," the Premier said.
Mr Perrottet said yesterday he'd met with 2800 new nurse graduates at Commbank Stadium, who were about to join the workforce.
"It's a hundred-year pandemic, there is going to be pressure on the system.
"We'll continue to work with the union in relation to their concerns."
He said the NSW government's investment in health outstripped spending in other states by a "country mile".
"Our frontline workers are the heroes of the pandemic and I thank them for everything they do.
"They have worked tirelessly for two long years and it's likely that will need to continue."
The confrontation occurred after NSW Health Deputy Susan Pearce said the state's hospital system had fared better than expected at the height of the wave.
Hospitalisations "never reached the peak of even the most optimistic scenario that we modelled", including in ICUs, Ms Pearce said.
NSW Health modelling predicted a best-case scenario of just over 3100 hospitalisations during the peak, and 6000 in the worst case scenario.
The premier said the state was continuing to "track very well" against the modelling and the peak of 217 people in ICUs was "well below" the best forecast of 270.
"For context under Delta we had 240 people in ICU," Mr Perrtottet said.
"Obviously as we always say that does not mean a hospital system has not been under pressure."
"It's been a long and hard and tiring two years... but this result we've released today is a testament as well to the investments we've made in our health system."
NSW reported 8950 new cases on COVID-19 on Friday, down 1180 from the previous reporting period.
The state also reported 19 COVID-19 related deaths, including three people in their 50s and 60s, 12 people in their 70s and 80s and four people in their 90s.
Some 1716 people are hospitalised with COVID-19, down 79 from Thursday after the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 dropped below 2000 for the first time since January this week.
