Nurses in the New South Wales area said that their planned strike will go ahead as scheduled from Wednesday. The NSW union of the nurses has said that about 180 branches will go for a complete shutdown from Wednesday onwards.

The basic demand of the nurses is to have a mandatory nurse-to-patient ratio in the public health system of the country. The Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) has ordered the nurses to postpone the strike for at least once a month. The entire public health system will come to a halt if the nurses go ahead with the strike.

Brett Holmes, secretary of the union has claimed that it is the duty of the Government to come to the negotiating table and bring out a suitable solution which is acceptable to all the parties. The state of Victoria has got a fixed nurse-to-patient ratio since 2001 and now the same benefits need to be extended to New South Wales also.

The Union claims that the hospitals in the region are poorly staffed and this is really having a problem on the quality of treatment at the hospitals. This is making the people of New South Wales deprived from quality health check-ups and treatment.

This is going to be the first state wise industrial agitation by the Union since the year 2001. If the Government does not come forward and negotiates, the public health system in New South Wales is going to have a tremendous impact as far as services and quality of treatment is considered.