Hundreds of Illawarra nurses are striking on Thursday, with many walking off the job for 24 hours from 7am over concerns about staffing levels and patient safety.
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Nurses want a nurse-to-patient of one-to-four in most wards and one-to-three in the emergency department, as well as improved maternity staffing that included babies in the patient count.
They are also calling for a pay rise above the 2.5 per cent the government has offered.
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As well as striking, nurses held a rally outside Wollongong Hospital on Thursday morning.
More than one thousand people attended the Crown Street gathering, with many carrying signs proclaiming messages for the NSW Government.
"Stop telling us we are coping", "Safe staffing levels save lives" and "Rage outwieghts fatigue" were some of the messages.
The march closed some of Wollongong's main streets for half an hour, as the nurses and midwives walked under police escort from the hospital to MacCabe Park.
They were joined by a number of other unions, including teachers, and many business owners along to street came out of their shops and offices to clap and cheer. Motorists who were stopped on cross streets also beeped their horns in support of the rally.
"Despite their pleas for more support from the government, nurses and midwives are extremely fatigued from working double shifts and increased amounts of overtime, because of the growing gaps in staffing rosters," NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association general secretary Brett Holmes said.
"We need the NSW government to sit down with us for meaningful talks about our claim for shift by shift nurse-to-patient ratios, improved maternity staffing and a modest pay rise."
The union says it has had no offer from the government since meeting with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet last month.
Life-preserving services will be maintained in all public hospitals and health services during the strike.
Nurses from the Wollongong, Shellharbour, Bulli and Coledale hospitals, as well as the Illawarra Shoalhaven Mental Health Nurses Branch, are among those taking part in the industrial action.
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