More than 20,000 hospital staff walked off the job across NSW; the industrial action lasting between one and four hours.

In Bathurst 30 staff voted outside the front of the hospital to strike for one hour.

Kim Hadson, from the Bathurst sub branch of the Health Services Union, told the striking workers negotiations between the union and Ministry for Health went late into the night; the end result was an agreement that a three-month proactive security approach be trialled in the Central Coast Local Health District.

But it was not enough to call off the industrial action, the union sending a clear message, that staff need to be able to do their jobs safely.

Ms Hadson said the industrial action wasn't about anything other than the safety of patients and staff.

"Anyone who sets foot inside a hospital, we want you to be safe, whether you're staff, a patient or a visitor."

She said even regional hospitals staff had been exposed to extreme levels of violence; at Bathurst Base Hospital staff have been held at knife point, a nurse at Bloomfield was fatally stabbed in 2011 and in Walgett in the 1990s, a nurse was kidnapped, raped and murdered.

"And things haven't improved," she said.

Bryan Billington (State Council HSU) who was part of the Bathurst industrial action said the last minute negotiations were a "good start", saying the Ministry of Health was scared by the strike action the union had put forward.

He said the fact staff went out for one hour shows the Ministry of Health "they were serious about the campaign."

Health Services Union delegates voted earlier in July to stop work on Thursday as they fight for increased security at the state's hospitals.

The strike ran between one and four hours at individual hospitals. There was also be a rally outside the NSW ministry of health offices at St Leonards.

HSU NSW secretary Gerard Hayes says patients weren't at risk during Thursday's strike action.

"We have skeleton teams to make sure patients are looked after."