An extra 1400 full-time equivalent nurses will be employed in New South Wales hospitals by 2013, after NSW nurses voted in favour of a new industrial relations agreement with the State Government.

The NSW Nurses Association (NSWNA) will this week put the new state award before the NSW Industrial Relations Commission after 90 percent of members voted in favour of the pay and conditions deal.

The agreement signals an end to the union’s year-long campaign for a safer staffing and skill mix in NSW public hospitals and community health services, which culminated in the closure of up to 600 hospital beds last month.

Under the deal, 80 percent of the extra 1400 nurses will be registered nurses while an additional 188 resuscitation nurses will be injected into 34 of the state’s larger emergency departments.

The deal signals improved staffing for most wards in all acute hospitals, while staffing standards in operating theatres will also be boosted with a minimum of two nurses, plus an anaesthetic nurse in each theatre.

NSW Health has also agreed to adopt Birthrate Plus, the generally accepted staffing ratio model for births per midwife in the UK, for NSW maternity and birthing facilities.

The deal also guarantees a 9.7 percent pay rise over three years – equivalent to a weekly rise of $129 for the majority of full-time registered nurses and midwives by July 1, 2012.

NSWNA general secretary Brett Holmes said while there were still some areas that needed work in future agreements, the new arrangement provides minimum, legally-enforceable staffing ratios in most hospital settings.

"Unfortunately NSW Health has not been as cooperative, at this stage, on community health services and that is something the NSWNA will be working very hard on over the next couple of years," he said in a statement.