The NSW government says it did not breach its staff agreements despite claims of long-running nursing shortfalls at a number of public hospitals.
The NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association is seeking civil penalties after 10 hospitals were allegedly left understaffed for years across the Greater Sydney region.
The union says nurse-to-patient ratios - the minimum number of nurses required to care for patients - were frequently below the figure required under employment awards in place from 2018 to 2021.
A key point of contention in the Supreme Court lawsuit is how exactly each award's required ratio of six nursing hours per patient day is calculated.
In its statement of claim, the nurses' union uses the actual number of patients and staff hours worked per week, saying worker numbers fell short in more than 1400 week-long periods.
But the NSW government said in a defence filed on August 3 those figures were irrelevant when considering whether or not it had breached the awards.
Instead, the state argues it had to calculate staff numbers by averaging them out over the year and that "spot checks" could be done to assess understaffing during four-week periods.
Despite a shortfall in actual nurse-to-patient ratios, there was no contravention of the awards, the defence said.
In the lawsuit, the court has been asked to hit the state with civil penalties paid directly to the nurses' union.
The hospitals where the alleged understaffing occurred were Gosford, Wollongong, Royal North Shore, Prince of Wales, Concord, Royal Prince Alfred, Liverpool, Bankstown/Lidcombe, Nepean and Westmead.
The case was filed in March, when the then-Liberal government was in power under premier Dominic Perrottet.
Union general secretary Shaye Candish said at the time the shortages constituted a welfare risk.
“We are talking about hundreds of thousands of nursing care hours not provided on general medical and surgical wards, meaning patients may have missed timely care, such as blood pressure checks, wound care or showers due to inadequate or unsafe staffing," she said.
Labor premier Chris Minns took power at the end of the month and in April introduced a minimum staff ratio of one nurse for every three patients in emergency rooms.
An advisory panel was set up to assess the needs for other wards.
Despite the changing of the political guard, the state continues to defend the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association's lawsuit.
The matter will next come before the court on September 13.
