As beds re-opened at two Goulburn hospitals yesterday, the NSW Nurses Association said community leaders had to embark on a concerted push to make the city an attractive place to live and work. Regional organiser Fran McQuade told the Post that the Southern NSW Local Health Network had tried hard with a big marketing campaign, but it wasn’t working.

“It is just a problem that people don’t want to live and work in Goulburn and I’m not sure this (industrial) campaign will improve that situation,” she said.

But Ms McQuade described the action as a positive that had finally brought the State Government to the negotiating table.

Details of the State’s offer on pay and workload had not filtered through the ranks yesterday.

But as a peacemaking gesture, the Association reopened nearly 600 beds closed in hospitals from last Thursday.

They included five at the Bourke St Health Service and eight at Goulburn Base.

Some elective and general surgery remained cancelled this week but was expected to revert to normal next week.

Patients are yet to be advised of their new dates. The Association will take the offer to its council on Monday and delegates on Tuesday. Ms McQuade told the Post on Tuesday that Goulburn Base nurses were overstretched and regularly doing double shifts. In addition staff were shuffled between wards, sometimes leaving areas without the required skill mix.

She attributed staff shortages to the fact nurses were being “worked to the bone” and traditional difficulties drawing the profession to rural areas.

But yesterday Ms McQuade said part of the problem was “intrinsic to Goulburn.”

“Management is really trying and they did embark on a big recruitment campaign but it just hasn’t worked,” she said.

“...They (the Southern NSW Local Health Network) need to work closely with Goulburn Mulwaree Council, the media and network broadly. They also need to advertise for nurses overseas.”

She estimated Goulburn Base needed at least 15 more nurses and a substantial casual pool, which they could call upon.

Goulburn did not receive any postgraduate nurses from the latest round, despite the campaign. The Veolia Mulwaree Trust has also tried to make inroads.

Director Paul Stephenson said yesterday the Trust had tried to establish a scholarship program to train more registered nurses for Goulburn, without success.

“But we are still putting nursing scholarships in there and funding into the hospital generally,” he said.

The latter has totalled $250,000 since the Trust started in earnest in 2005.

Mr Stephenson, a former Goulburn Mulwaree Mayor, said the real answer was to establish more teaching hospitals that could train nurses.

“I think one at Goulburn Base Hospital would be a good thing to strive for,” he said.

Furthermore, programs had to make it easier for enrolled nurses to upgrade to registered status. Often they were deterred by travel to tertiary institutions in Canberra and leaving their families, Mr Stephenson said.

A treechange working party, under council auspices, expects to start a marketing campaign in June drawing people to the area. Member Mhairi Fraser previously told the Post that turning around Goulburn’s image and tackling the social divide were essential if the city was to entice professionals for the long-term.