SYDNEY—Claims that nursing graduates are being denied jobs in public hospitals because there are not enough staff to train them are untrue, the NSW Government says.
"It's not true that there's mass numbers of people who are being knocked back," a spokeswoman for Health Minister Reba Meagher told AAP.
"We still have vacancies for nursing graduates."
The Health Minister was speaking on the back of a media report which claimed hundreds of graduates had been denied places in the 2008 New Graduate Program.
St Vincent's Hospital took 68 applicants but turned away more than 100 while at the Royal Prince Alfred, 200 applied for 88 positions, the Fairfax report said.
The graduate program is designed to give nurses a mentor to help guide them in their new roles.
The rejections were caused by a lack of senior staff to work as mentors in the public hospital system, the Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery said in the Fairfax article.
But Ms Meagher said while some hospitals were simply too popular to offer a position to every applicant, there were still enough vacancies available elsewhere.
Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said the Government had failed to keep pace with the increasing number of nursing graduates.
"It's simply incredible that despite 1,300 nursing vacancies in the state's hospitals the Iemma Government is actually turning away new graduate nurses," he said in a statement.
More than 400 new places were created for graduates this year compared to 2007, Ms Meagher said.
The graduate program, which operates similar to university placements, will commence a second intake this year.
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