Lithgow Hospital, which is part of the Nepean Local Health District, has been a place of safety for the community, taking a strategic approach to make sure they deal with the Omicron variant across the district in the same way.

Lithgow Hospital's general manager Bronwyn Boyling said that her hospital has the same initiatives as everywhere else.

"So we have our COVID screening clinic, which is where you can come and get your PCR test. Prior to the RATS coming out we were very busy but the numbers have obviously dropped off since then," she said.

"We have screening as you come into our front door to monitor people that are coming for any type of test or procedure, or outpatient visit to ensure that they're not COVID positive at the time, or they haven't come in close contact with another person in their household.

"We don't ever refuse any service to anyone but we always try and keep the service as safe as possible for the whole community as well as my staff at the same time."

Ms Boyling said they are just like the community and face the same risks every day in their personal lives.

"But within the hospital itself, we're very safe and with no staff transmission between the staff members," she said.

"It's because everybody that works here follows all the PPE rules. They're very safe and very stringent about the way they work. So we've been good."

Ms Boyling said the high risk areas in the hospital were the tea rooms, which they have been managing very carefully and safely.

"It's one person sitting at a table or we've got our outside areas where staff can sit, but we've put up extra places for staff to have their meal breaks and we're trying to get more people outside and away from having to be inside wearing PPE masks constantly, so that's been a real focus we've had," she said.

"We've been very careful in the way we've managed our staff."

The hospital had a core group of people that worked over Christmas and then a core group that they made sure had a decent break over the Christmas period.

"Now what we're trying to do is give the people that have worked really hard and very, very long hours over the Christmas period, a break," she said.

"We had our choice of who works, we're a 24 hour service so we are always going to have someone work over the Christmas period but it was very long days. And for some they worked seven days week."

The staff members who aren't on the floor are still managing things in the background and attending all the meetings and making sure all the strategies from the Ministry and Local Health District are rolled out timely and safely.

Ms Boyling said that if she is being honest, they are all tired.

"We're all exhausted, it's been a long, hard slog and even though we've had small breaks it has been two years of this now. I think everyone's very tired," she said.

"The trends are showing that it is starting to decrease. So we'll just say we we're as prepared as we can be to ride the next wave when and if it comes."

Ms Boyling said they were very fortunate to not have been impacted by the lack of PPE or any testing facilities.

"Until recently, we were not dependent upon RATS at all. So we always do PCR testing," she said.

"So NSW Health obviously has RATS that are required to test people as they come into our emergency departments in outpatients that we identify being high risk.

"Obviously, there's not an abundance of these things around but we very carefully monitor the same state stockpile. We're just part of that and we get given our allocation and make sure wet don't waste them, it's just careful resourcing."

Ms Boyling wanted to reiterate that the rules that have been imposed on Health are not locally made.

"We don't get a choice to say that visiting is restricted within the hospital, and we're doing telehealth and phone calls, rather than some face to face visiting," she said.

"We also started back up our theatres, but it's only at a reduced rate."

Ms Boyling also said it's about having that respect of the people in our small community.

"They're the ones that you might see in Coles today but they're the person that's looking after you tomorrow and that's the respect that we ask for, kindness is the best thing," she said.

Ms Boyling wanted to give a personal thank you to every single staff member that works at Lithgow and Portland Hospital.

"Portland is an aged care facility, so they've had even more restrictions placed on them than what we have in hospital system," she said.

"So a huge personal thank you to everyone, we are all exhausted and tired, and we are doing our best to continue on."

Ms Boyling said they were no different to anyone else in the state.

"It's just a common factor that everyone's tired at the end of the day, but they all turn up the next day, and we have very little sick leave. Everybody is happy to put their hand up if we need help with a double shift or some overtime as well," she said.

"We're very fortunate we've got a great bunch of staff here."

Ms Boyling said the community needed to be thanked as well.

"We've obviously had a spike in the number of people with COVID, but when you're out and about, and you do hear people talking, they are taking the safe route, and they are trying to be careful," she said.

"You do see the majority of people wearing masks and doing hand hygiene and QR coding in, you know that's huge. That helps us a lot as well. It's very appreciated that people do do the right thing and it doesn't go unnoticed by our staff, either.

"It's important to keep the community safe, and then it keeps us safe so we can be here for them as well."

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