Yesterday the Nationals member put the first steps into place into trying to broker a roundtable conference and some compromise with hospital management, clinicians and nursing staff over the issue.

His actions came as the hospital announced there’d been a critical transfer of a newborn baby from Tamworth to John Hunter last week – although the hospital said the baby’s condition or transfer was not related to the staffing issue.

The maternity unit and the emergency department of Tamworth hospital have been at the core of the row over staffing rosters since the new units were opened a couple of months ago.

The standoff – where the hospital management has so far refused to put additional staff on rosters in the two units – has gone on for weeks, but the first real glimmer of hope of some compromise or resolution has come now with Mr Anderson saying he’d put the wheels in motion to get the parties to the table to talk.

Mr Anderson said after a meeting with Health Minister Jillian Skinner on Wednesday afternoon he’d been given the green light to try to effect a resolution by bringing the nurses, doctors and administrators together.

A preliminary phone call with Hunter New England Health chief Michael DiRienzo yesterday started moves to find a date for a meeting in Tamworth.

Mr Anderson said he hoped that would be as soon as possible, perhaps as early as next week, when the next industrial relations meeting was expected to be held between the nurses association and Hunter New England Health (HNEH).

Mr Anderson denied the issue of the baby transfer had precipitated any move to mediate the problem and said he’d only been told of the incident after he went to see the minister.

The Tamworth MP said he’d been motivated to act on the strength of results coming from the new short-stay unit at the hospital, which had been in operation for a week, and had earlier been touted by management as expected to relieve the staffing issues.

Hospital general manager Brad Hansen said last week the short-stay unit would free up treatment spaces in the ED, reducing short-term patient admissions to the rest of the main wards. 

But Mr Anderson indicated nurses had told him the pressure on nursing rosters had not been lessened since then and HNEH had informed him they were still doing some operational data on the new unit.

The row has centred around what nurses and doctors say is a lack of one night roster shift in emergency and one shift in maternity. 

“I have been told this is an operational matter, I have spoken with Mr DiRienzo and he’s pulling together the data they are using; it’s operational data,” Mr Anderson said.

The health service released a statement late yesterday in relation to the critical incident with the newborn baby.

“Following the birth, and as per our usual process, Hunter New England Health began an analysis which involves us working with our staff to understand the circumstances of this case,” the acting executive director for Rural and Regional Health Services, David Quirk, said.

“This is an important process and one that we need to allow to be completed.

“I know there is a lot of discussion in the community about staffing at Tamworth hospital and specifically in the maternity unit. I want to reassure the community that I’ve spoken with the hospital and this is not related to this case.”

Meanwhile, the nurses association welcomed news that Mr Anderson had held talks with the minister.

General secretary of the NSWNMA, Brett Holmes, said interventions by Mr Anderson and the involvement of the minister – what the association had sought many weeks ago – is a positive step forward. 

“The practice of forcing highly-skilled nurses and midwives to work excessive overtime and extra shifts on an ongoing basis is unacceptable and extremely unsafe,” Mr Holmes said.

“The people of Tamworth and surrounding areas deserve much better from their local health service.”