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Nurses warn the latest pay deal covering 35,000 hospital nurses and midwives has turned the pay gap with general practice nurses into a chasm and patients will suffer.
They say it's not even that great for hospital nurses because it doesn't keep up with inflation or fix safe staffing levels.
The deal increases their pay by at least $6,000 a year and lifts the top of the pay scale for most hospital nurses to nearly $107,000 a year.
Ruth Hill reports.