One midwife broke down in tears on Monday while relating her experiences of workplace bullying to the special commission of inquiry into acute care services in NSW hospitals.
A social worker also said there was pressure to tell families to accept the first available bed for relatives in an aged care facility following hospital treatment.
"We think that the policy that the patients have to accept the first available bed is inadequate," Blacktown Hospital acute team social worker Claudia Graham told the inquiry, sitting at Westmead Hospital.
"I often hear people say (of an aged care home), 'I wouldn't put my dog in there'. My understanding is the pressure is coming from hospitals."
Graham said it was distressing for elderly patients to share a room with strangers in Sydney aged care facilities.
In her experience, 30 per cent of aged care patients died within 10 days of being told they were going to a nursing home after being treated in hospital, she said.
Many social workers spent much of their time with paperwork, placing people in aged care, she said.
The inquiry heard from two midwives who work at Katoomba's Blue Mountains Hospital, west of Sydney.
Both said they were struggling with low staffing levels, shifts of up to 18 hours and stagnant wages.
Julie-anne Lahache said bullying had led to high staff turnover at the hospital.
"Because of the true and perceived bullying, a lot of people want to leave now," Lahache told the hearing.
Her colleague Jane Morley, a midwife at the hospital for 21 years, broke down when explaining she and other colleagues had endured bullying from superiors.
"Another thing I want to talk about is the bullying that goes on in the system," she said, breaking down.
"We have to put up with a fair bit of abuse."
She said staff were threatened with disciplinary action if they did not collect blood samples from every baby delivery.
Morley said she had recently completed an 18 hour "double shift" after an 11 hour shift earlier in the week.
Nepean Hospital nurse Karen Braid told the inquiry the new emergency department IT system at the western Sydney hospital had a series of teething problems, crashing 23 times in the past six months.
"When it's down, it's down for two hours or more and we're running blind," she said.
The inquiry will continue in Sydney on Thursday with health staff from Wagga Wagga, in the state's south, giving submissions via videolink.
