The audience included representatives from Griffith City Council, local nurses and an envoy of nurses from Leeton along with other concerned residents of the area.

Some shared their own stories, including a shocking ten-week wait for a routine biopsy that later confirmed the presence of cancer in her husband.

The Area News asked Ms Faehrmann, the only member of the panel who was actually on the inquiry's board, why the inquiry failed to recommend or even mention mandated nurse-to-patient ratios.

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NSWNMA General Secretary Brett Holmes had previously noted the conspicuous absence on the release of the inquiry.

"While we welcome the committee's recommendation for a workforce review, the urgent implementation of safe staffing ratios is paramount and would help to address these issues," Mr Holmes added.

Ms Faehrmann said that she would have liked to see a stronger report, but was shot down by NSW Labor's efforts.

"Labor and the government didn't accept my amendments," she said.

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"Personally, in terms of the report, I think it could have been a lot stronger. It's not my report, it's a committee report ... I was kinda hoping for a lot stronger recommendations and findings ... and I put in 65 amendments to that report."

"I was a bit more happy with it after the meeting but there were two key things that didn't get approved - the rural and remote health commissioner, as well as ratios."

Shadow Health Minister Ryan Park defended the decision not to include the long-asked for request, and said it came down to a budget issue.

"We're continuing to talk with [nurses and midwives] - the challenge is that we haven't had a budget handed down. We need to make sure that commitments can be delivered," he said.

"There's a lot more economic challenges and stress on the budget than there was a couple of years back."

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