The $430 million project has been under way since 2012 and this third plank will add a six-storey ambulatory care building to the precinct, with a $30m multi-storey car park scheduled to come after that.

There is no doubt the new facilities are lightyears ahead of what they replaced. The collection of temporary facilities clustered around the old red-brick main block were, for far too long, expected to serve a rapidly growing population.

Now that Wagga has a great new building, we need to make sure we have the staff to go with it. Or more correctly, we need to make sure we have the right ratio of staff.

New figures have shown that Wagga Base's emergency department is becoming busier and, given the hospital is at the centre of a growing region, it's not likely to become less so.

Wagga has been named by the state government as one of two regional centres, along with Tamworth, to be the focus of a push to increase the population to 100,000.

Throw in an ageing population, and the need for enough staff at our region's busiest hospital is obvious.

The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association has long been pushing for improvements in the ratios at Wagga Base in a bid to bring it in line with metropolitan requirements.

The union is campaigning for a one-to-three nurse-to-patient ratio to be introduced in all emergency departments.

New figures show the number of patients at Wagga Base's ED is up almost 12 per cent on the same time last year.

With the state election campaign now in full swing, both the government and the opposition are making promises about nursing numbers, as they should.

Cliched it might be, but the reality is that nurses literally do save lives and sometimes seconds really do count.

There are a great many ways governments could reduce their bottom lines, but one area that simply shouldn't have to face cutbacks is frontline health staff.