They may be in the business of caring for the ill, but nurses at Dubbo Base Hospital say a staffing crisis has left them sick and tired.
A group of 80 nurses has threatened strike action on Thursday if management at the central western NSW hospital fails to match the number of staff to service requirements in the next 48 hours.
They came to the unanimous decision at a stop-work meeting on Monday afternoon.
The hospital is running 27 full-time frontline positions short of minimum requirements, the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association (NSWNMA) says, with staff logging more than 400 hours of overtime per week.
"Management are denying our data is correct," NSWNMA general secretary Judith Kiejda told AAP on Tuesday.
"When you get 80 members to a meeting at Dubbo, there is an issue there."
She said the nurses are "sick of it" and are requesting a 20 per cent reduction in non-urgent elective surgery and the closure of surgical beds, not including emergency and maternity.
The new Dubbo hospital opened in mid-December last year and serves as a referral hospital for many rural NSW medical centres.
The Western NSW Local Health District acknowledged the hospital's vacancy issue in a statement on Monday, assuring the situation was "not uncommon" for large facilities undergoing redevelopment.
The district's Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Adrian Fahy, said 17 full-time equivalent staff are "currently in the later stages of recruitment and appointment" to the hospital.
"The Western NSW Local Health District is also supporting the facility with nurses from an internal reliever pool and external agency nursing staff to ensure all nursing shifts are covered appropriately," he said.
The NSWNMA said staff have voiced concerns over not being able to give appropriate care due to exhaustion.
However Mr Fahy said overtime is "only undertaken when necessary and agreed upon by the staff member, and when safe to do so for both our patients and the staff member".
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