Patients are trickling to private hospitals and Dubbo isn't spared they need to fill a nursing pool that's just hard to find

Australian Private Hospitals Association chief executive officer Michael Roff said the vacancies need to be filled urgently, or "we run the risk of limited access or reduced quality of care".

"The private hospital sector is feeling the pinch," Mr Roff said.

"In 2020, our hospitals were worried we don't have enough personal protective equipment for our nurses, now they are worried we won't have enough nurses for PPE."

Dubbo Private Hospital, with 53 beds and three operating theatres, has to fill a pool of 10 casual, part-time and full time nurses.

Without putting a number, its chief executive officer Gail Priest told the Daily Liberal, exacerbating the shortage of local nursing staff in Dubbo is the expected retirement of a number of nurses in the next five years, so they create a casual pool.

Yet, this pool remained constantly empty, particularly when nurses go on abrupt sick leave.

Their current staff consists of 16 percent overseas recruits, nurses job-sharing from other hospitals, and student nurses at Dubbo TAFE and Charles Sturt University.

One of the hurdles to recruiting nurses, Mrs Priest said, is the difficulty attracting nurses to country areas like Dubbo due to the distance from major cities.

"The shortage is widespread but it is difficult to the country areas due to distance, minimal public transport for nurses without driving licenses to get to and from work, and acute shortages of rental accommodation in Dubbo," Mrs Priest said.

Recruiting overseas-trained nurses is another problem because they are "inhibited from traveling" due to COVID and recent flu outbreaks.

Mrs Priest said they are assisting bigger public hospitals, such as Dubbo Base Hospitals, by absorbing some patients that they can accept.

"We do try and help the public system as much as we can so yes, we do accept public patients if we are able to," she said.

Mr Roff said the APHA has proposed to the federal government to reduce the waiting time for nurses' working visas, reduce to a one-year moratorium on the testing of overseas trained health workers, provide pathways for permanent residency for skilled migrants, and remove age limits on health care workers willing to take on the job.