A petition with 7000 signatures will be presented to member for Wagga Daryl Maguire today as nurses hit back at the federal government’s proposed changes.

Aged care used to be classified as high and low care but a new system could change the classification to aging in place, which does not require registered nurses to be on shift 24/7 at nursing homes.

NSW Nurses and Midwifes Association organiser Jeffrey Crebert said it is a money-grabbing exercise that compromises patient care.

“You take away the most expensive part of your cost, which is the registered nurse, you can make more money,” he said.

Registered nurses in nursing homes can assess patient welfare and pick up changes in medical conditions.

A quick phone call to the patient’s general practitioner can have the patient on prescription medication within a matter of hours.

“Without a registered nurse being able to pick up on these things, they will be transferred to an emergency department,” Mr Crebert said.

“To have unnecessary transfers is a burden on emergency departments.

“It’s much better to treat the person in that facility, in their home.”

A petition with 10,000 signatures was required to have the matter debated in parliament.

This has been achieved and it will be discussed in parliament on Thursday.

Mr Crebert said the 7000 local signatures is an indication that nurses in the country will not accept conditions that are already straining metropolitan centres.

“We are trying to highlight that this (petition) is going ahead,” he said.

“Then they can continue to lobby and make their feelings known to the minister.”

Registered nurses could be replaced with residential care workers who might have only a Certificate III qualification, which Mr Crebert said is not good enough.

Doctor Maree Bernoth from Charles Sturt University’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health has given evidence to an inquiry by a Legislative Council committee.

“People in residential aged care have multiple chronic conditions with competing care needs,” she said.

“All of those require complex care, competing needs that cannot be juggled and prioritised.

“I am concerned that we are questioning the role of the RN when really we should be looking at how we can support that role and increase the skills and knowledge of registered nurses working in aged care.”

Dr Bernoth will present the petition to Mr Maguire at 3pm today.