The NSW Nurses Association has threatened weeks of ongoing bed closures if the State Government fails to meet its demands for higher staffing levels.

The association today ramped up its campaign for the introduction of a one-to-four ratio of nurses to patients in NSW hospitals and community healthcare services, after months of negotiations with the State Government reached a stalemate.

Twenty-six beds were closed at Wollongong Hospital and more are to come but beds in emergency and intensive care, oncology, paediatrics and maternity, will not be affected.

The association’s acting general secretary Judith Kiejda said despite today’s bed closures the State Government was still refusing to come to the negotiating table. “They are basically saying no,” she said. “I think that we are in this for the long haul. We will just keep on doing what we are doing.

“We just cannot continue to sustain a system that doesn’t care for the patients the way they need to be cared for.”

Ms Kiejda said the industrial action would continue until community pressure forced the government to re-think its stance.

She said the ratio system had worked well in Victoria for the past decade. “I just don’t understand why the New South Wales State Government does not get that if another state has it and it’s working well, then that’s what we should have here.”

The Health Department has moved to reassure patients they will have access to appropriate care throughout the campaign.