LABOR candidate for Bega Leanne Atkinson welcomed her party’s announcement and how it would apply to hospitals in the electorate – Bega, Moruya and Batemans Bay.

“Over the last few months I’ve done a lot of community consultation,” Ms Atkinson said.

“It didn’t matter which community I was speaking with, they were all concerned about health, pressure on nurses and the impact on patients.

“This is great news for people in the Bega community.”

Ms Atkinson said the pressure on local nurses was never more evident than during a recent visit to Batemans Bay Hospital.

“One story that was told to me during that visit was that in the emergency department at night  – because of the ratios – there were times the security person was looking after the ward because the ward nurse had to race off to assist with a trauma patient.

“These are really distressing stories.

“I’m pleased the Liberals have matched us on getting rid of the chemotherapy co-payment.

“[However,] I’m hoping Andrew Constance will match us on nurse ratios as well, because this is an issue that should go beyond politics.”

Also pleased with the election pledge was Diane Lang from the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Bega branch.

“That’s great news – that’s what we have been campaigning for,” Ms Lang said when alerted to Tuesday’s announcement.

“[Ratios] should be across the board – rural hospitals have a harder time than they need to because they don’t have enough support.”

Ms Lang said finding nurses to fill the 840 spots across the state committed to by Labor would not be difficult.

“We’re losing skilled, highly trained nurses now because they are exhausted,” she said.

“With a better system and ratios we can retain them.

“And we have students graduating and looking for work, but we can’t employ them because we don’t have the funding for the extra positions.

“Getting it legislated is very important.”

Meanwhile, Member for Bega Andrew Constance raised “deep concern over Labor’s backflip on nurse to patient ratios”.

 “I find it absolutely bewildering that former Minister Carmel Tebutt, who came to launch the local Labor campaign recently, is on record stating, in regards to nurse to patient ratios, ‘We have said all along that a blunt one-size-fits-all ratio will not work in NSW’ and that ‘Ratios can be a very inflexible way of dealing with staffing and workload in a modern hospital’.

“Once again it goes to prove that Labor cannot be trusted – it says one thing before an election and does another afterwards,” Mr Constance said.

 “Labor’s commitment to an additional 840 nursing positions is not even a quarter of the Baird Government’s nurse recruitment in our first term and its costings do not add up.”

Mr Constance highlighted that there are more nurses caring for patients in hospitals than ever before with an additional 4600 nurses (3400 FTE) joining the ranks since the 2011 election.

"The Bega electorate has had a significant increase in the number of nurses in the past four years and I would remind the union what life was like under 16 years of Labor when the local health service was left carrying $20million of deficit,” Mr Constance said.

"Bega is about to get a brand new hospital and this will lead to a major recruitment drive for more and new nurses for our region."