Mark Isherwood
North Wales nurses are stressed and exhausted and patients are being put at risk as a result, North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood told Assembly Members this week.
Mr Isherwood quoted North Wales nurses in the Assembly Chamber when speaking in support of introducing a proposed law to introduce minimum staffing level for nurses.
The Private Member’s Bill, proposed by Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams, attracted cross-party support from Labour backbenchers, Welsh Conservatives and Plaid Cymru, with Welsh Labour Government Ministers abstaining from the vote, allowing it to pass with 39 votes in favour and 12 abstentions.
Speaking in the debate, Mr Isherwood said the Royal College of Nursing in Wales highlights a significant body of evidence linking nursing staffing levels to the safety and quality of care provided to patients and said the evidence he has heard from NHS staff in North Wales backs this up.
The quotes he used included (for all quotes see notes below):
‘I’m a nurse working in Wrexham. We’re getting more work added to our role without any increase of staff. I get frustrated when nurses and doctors get the blame when patient care is compromised due to lack of staff’.
‘I’ve been educating student nurses for the past 10 years, and I’ve been shocked at the reduction in numbers commissioned for nurse education places over the years. Our students feed back to us how busy the wards and how few trained nurses there are. Students have struggled to secure full-time permanent contracts.’ ‘I am a student nurse, working in north Wales. Student nurses are often relied upon to perform essential tasks, due to low staffing levels.’
‘I am a nurse working in district nursing— Not only are staffing levels dropping, but skill mix is constantly being reduced. Registered nursing posts are being replaced by healthcare assistants, and whilst these staff members do enhance care, they’re not nurses, and, as a result, standards of care are dropping. Front-line staff are also not being replaced when they leave or retire. It’s worrying.’
‘There have been many occasions when I have been the only qualified nurse, with two healthcare staff, and with care of 50-plus patients with high-dependency needs, dementia, and physical illness. At such a level of staffing, it’s not possible to provide quality care.’ ‘We constantly raise concerns with our managers, and complete incident forms on occasions where patient care and safety is compromised due to low staffing numbers, but to no avail—nobody is listening.’
Mr Isherwood said: “North Wales GPs have told me about increased bedblocking because of staffing cuts in community hospitals. Concerns have also been raised by nurses working in our remaining community hospital minor injury units that they are being forced to reduce staffing levels, and will not in future be able to provide 12-hour daily services, such as dressing changes and the removal of stiches. A patient told me: ‘If you help broaden the proposed Bill to minimum staffing levels, nursing assistants as well as registered nurses in primary and secondary care, you’ll have done the patients of Wales a great service.’
“So, let us agree to the introduction of this Bill on minimum nurse staffing levels, and give voice to these nurses and the many more who have written to us, the 60 Assembly Members, because of similar experiences.”
