The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSW NMA) members met with management on Thursday to discuss their concerns, after the association revealed on Monday staff had been working an average of 423 hours of overtime per week to cover 27 unfilled full-time vacancies.

The NSW NMA Dubbo Hospital branch had urged hospital management to close beds in order to reduce the workload and voted on Monday to close beds themselves if management did not find a solution to the problem.

Since Monday, 12 agency nurses have arrived on the wards and are providing "some good relief", a NSW NMA spokesperson said.

No industrial action would be taken by the nurses at this stage, a spokesperson said, but the NSW NMA would continue to monitor the situation over the next two weeks as discussions continued, to ensure the staffing shortage continued to be addressed.

In a statement regarding the shortage, NSW NMA assistant general secretary Judith Kiejda said the amount of overtime was astounding and unsustainable.

"To try and run a hospital 27 staff short is just not possible," Ms Kiejda said on Monday.

In a statement regarding Monday's meeting, Western NSW LHD director nursing and midwifery Adrian Fahy said the hospital was in the process of recruiting 17 full-time equivalent staff, and was also supporting the facility with nurses from an internal reliever pool and external agency nursing staff.

"Dubbo Hospital and Western NSW Local Health District have been working closely with the local branch of the nurses' union and the NSW Nurses & Midwives Association about staffing numbers at Dubbo," Mr Fahy said.

"The NSW Nurses & Midwives Association have been fully briefed about recruitment activities at the Hospital and are aware of all efforts being conducted to ensure staff are recruited to existing vacancies."