The Yass public health system is in danger of collapsing if urgent action isn't taken by the NSW Government, according to the local Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) Branch.
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Nurses and midwives across southern NSW are preparing to take strike action on Tuesday February 15, protesting against the state government's refusal to negotiate safe staffing in public hospitals.
Read more: Thousands of NSW nurses to strike
NSWNMA Yass District Hospital Branch President Paul Haines said they wanted communities across the state to know what was happening inside public hospitals.
"We want the community to know that if we continue down this route then we are going to have no health system left, we will have nothing," he said.
"Services have been stripped back at Yass Hospital for years and it's still happening.
"We basically operate the hospital on a shoestring and every year we hear about saving more money but there isn't any to save, we are literally operating on a shoestring budget.
"We need the community to help us stand up to politicians and say we're not going to tolerate this anymore, we need to invest in health."
Health services in the Southern Tablelands have come under scrutiny in recent months with paramedics required to staff the emergency department in Yass and the maternity ward at Goulburn Base Hospital.
"It's happening already at Yass Hospital," Haines said of staff shortages.
"We had paramedics staffing the emergency department over Christmas. Legally I don't know how that happened, morally it's very questionable.
"If you had presented to Yass Hospital in a critically unwell state you would have been taking your life into your own hands. It's like a third world health system."
Haines explained that a failure to implement a three-to-one patient to nurse ratio and a pay cap of 2.5 percent have pushed healthcare workers to the brink.
"Nurses are at the point now where they are completely burnt out, physical and mental health is failing and they are leaving in droves," he said.
"The union is at a point where we feel we have no choice other than to strike.
"Nurses have been doing it tough. They have been doing heaps of overtime in very horrible sweaty PPE, exposing themselves to COVID-19 and risking taking it home to their families.
"The government has said thank you very much now we're going to slash your pay even further which is a huge insult. Nurses do not take strike action lightly and we hate to make it about pay but we have mortgages and bills to pay."
The Yass branch will walk off the job at 10am and will march down main street. Life-preserving services will be maintained throughout the 24-hours the strike is expected to last.
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