Nurses in New South Wales are fed up as the government drags its feet behind Queensland and Victoria who’ve introduced nurse to patient ratios.

Fresh calls for similar changes to be instilled have been raised by the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association.

Currently, there is only a minimum ratio in place for our medical surgery wards and in rehabilitative and palliative care.

General Secretary of the Association Brett Holmes tells Chris Smith they’re calling for a one in four ratio in medical surgery areas.

“We want that across all of our hospitals, not just the big city hospitals. We want patients in our rural and regional areas to have access to the same level of nursing care.”

A recent survey revealed 67% of nurses have thought about leaving the job because of poor staffing levels and high workloads.

“We’ve got to get this government to understand that it’s time to put in place a system that delivers the right number of nurses to patients on every shift,” Mr Holmes says.

“We’ll continue to campaign..press our case for as long as it takes.”

Click PLAY for the full interview with Brett Holmes