Months of nursing staff scarcity reached a new crisis point on Wednesday, with reports more than 40 people were waiting for medical attention in the emergency department at one stage.

There was also a further instance that night of only one bed being available for four ambulances urgently transporting sick patients.

Nurse and NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association Wagga branch president Natalie Ellis said staff were left feeling overwhelmed and helpless from the onslaught of patients. 

“We weren’t able to clear any of our intensive care patients so one was waiting in the ED, which is not ideal for quite sick people,” she said.

“I had at least two staff members in tears in the afternoon just because of workload and feeling overwhelmed.”

Gundagai paramedic and Australian Paramedics Association NSW secretary Gary Wilson said a Sydney hospital with that level of demand would have either been completely closed or only open to people with life-threatening cases. 

“When we were at the hospital yesterday [on Wednesday], one of the staff members informed us if they were a hospital in Sydney where they have multiple hospitals available they would have been code red or code black,” he said. 

 “It’s not just people in the ambulances, it’s people in the waiting rooms that are often the group that gets forgotten about.”

Ms Ellis also said non-acute patients are being transferred to surrounding Riverina hospitals to free up beds.

In an emailed statement, hospital acting general manager Owen Thomas confirmed a “higher than average” amount of activity on Wednesday, with 44 admitted with acute conditions rather than the winter average of 32. 

“Patients were seen within clinical benchmark time frames for their urgency category and the ED was staffed appropriately,” he said.