Labor and the Liberals are being urged to to boost the NSW healthcare workforce ahead of the state election in order to cut patient wait times.
The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine warns that healthcare workforce shortages, due in part to deficits in long-term planning and resourcing, are among the key challenges facing the NSW health system.
With about 40 days until the next state election, the college is calling for a four-year workforce retention package to support existing healthcare staff.
"The most important thing in the health system is people: the patients, carers and the people who work in it," its president Claire Skinner said.
"Every healthcare worker in NSW wants to deliver the timely and effective care that people need. But this is simply impossible when there are not enough skilled staff in the right places to provide it."
The college is also urging both major parties to implement all 12 recommendations from a parliamentary report on the impact of ambulance ramping in the state, released in December.
One of the key recommendations was the creation of a dedicated position with responsibility for patient flow across the state, to reduce hospitals operating at 100 per cent capacity for most of the time.
The national body representing emergency doctors is demanding an additional 20 per cent in funding for clinician roles across the public hospital system to increase access to services seven days per week and outside business hours.
Premier Dominic Perrottet has repeatedly defended his government's track record, saying the state has the best healthcare system in the country.
The college's electoral demands come days after the Health Services Union released a report which demanded a royal commission into the state's bulging $33 billion budget, which it claims it is not reaching patients or practitioners.
The report also found patient complaints about health services increased by 144 per cent over the last decade, and 40 per cent more since the start of the pandemic.
It said that from September 2021 to June 2022, 10 per cent of people who urgently needed an ambulance in NSW waited over two hours.
