NURSES at Bathurst Base Hospital have been assured by management that new recruits are on the way following a series of crisis meetings.
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Representatives from the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association met with hospital officials on Friday before meeting with their members to address a number of issues at the hospital.
Union general secretary Brett Holmes would not detail specific complaints from hospital staff but said Friday's meetings had managed to find some common ground.
"The outcome is that there have been two very open and frank meetings between association representatives and management and there has been general agreement between the parties to work to improve the workplace culture and morale at Bathurst," Mr Holmes said.
"There has been an acknowledgment of issues that we will continue to work through.
"There have been long-standing issues around management directives and staffing levels and there's going to be some work on staffing issues and educational support issues that have been acknowledged."
The Western Advocate understands there had been some talk among staff about a possible vote of no confidence in the hospital management but Mr Holmes said some of the nurses' concerns pre-dated the current management.
"There seems to be some recognition that there needs to be some improvement," Mr Holmes said.
"We understand recruitment is under way with some success and we hope that will start to help to resolve some issues."
Friday's meetings came just a week after a report found there were hundreds of unfilled nursing vacancies across NSW, including 72 in the Western NSW Local Health District.
An audit of health jobs on the website iworkfor.nsw.gov.au found there were 404 unfilled health jobs outside of Sydney, Newcastle and Illawarra.
There vacancies meant nurses were being pressured to work overtime while expectant mothers in remote areas were being forced to travel long distances to have their babies.