Victoria Health Minister David Davis said on Sunday that the state will back the move by public hospitals to turnover to Fair Work Australia (FWA) the planned nurses' strike which could lead to bed closures.

Mr Davis defended the move to stop the Australian Nursing Federation's (ANF) planned industrial action because it would threaten patient safety and welfare.

"Almost all elective surgery takes place during the week and from tomorrow an increasing number of Victorians who have waited for surgery will have their surgery cancelled due to the ANF's industrial action," the Herald Sun quoted Mr Davis.

"There is no safe way to shut down a third of hospital beds and cancel urgent elective procedures, as well as non-elective procedures. The Victorian Government will not allow patient safety and welfare to be put at risk by this unnecessary union action," he added.

Reports said that the ANF started to close public hospital beds from 7 a.m. on Saturday. By Sunday afternoon, it has shuttered 700 more beds of the 13,000 beds in the system. Of the 700, 315 are in metropolitan Melbourne and 385 in regional Victoria.

The ANF - which is seeking an 18.5 per cent pay hike over three years and eight months, and preservation of nurse-patient ratio - said the bed closures excludes the Royal Children's Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Csncer Centre, as well as pediatric, maternity, oncology and palliative care wards.

The industrial action was initiated by the ANF over reported plans to reduce the yearly nursing budget by $104 million and reduce nurse-to-patient rations. The ANF had been in conciliation talks with FWA since last week and with 86 public hospitals represented by the Victorian Hospitals Industrial Association.

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