New law on staffing levels will save lives

Good news about nurse staffing levels can be hard to find, so how fantastic that a protracted campaign in Wales finally paid off last week with the passage of legislation to ensure hospital wards are staffed safely. Next month, the Queen will give royal assent to the Safe Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Bill, which will save lives, produce better outcomes and enhance the patient experience of care.

The new law will require local health boards – and English NHS trusts that run services in Wales – to calculate and agree minimum nurse staffing levels. They will also have to provide indicators of where failure to provide a sufficient number of nurses has compromised patient care in the past. Any staff member or member of the public will have the right to instigate legal action if they have reason to believe that the agreed levels of nurse staffing are not being maintained.

It is a great shame that the legislation will apply only in part of the UK, but it is a start, and the change could be replicated elsewhere if it proves to be successful. Let us hope that government ministers in the other three countries wake up and see the potential benefits of such laws, rather than taking a reductionist view based only on the initial costs involved in employing more, better qualified staff.

Much of the credit must go to the Welsh Liberal Democrats’ leader and assembly member Kirsty Williams, who introduced the bill and built the case for its approval by her fellow assembly members. Praise is also due to RCN Wales director Tina Donnelly and her team, who have campaigned tirelessly and persistently over several years. And well done to health minister Mark Drakeford, initially a sceptic, for seeing sense.

As Ms Williams said last week, the logic is simple: ‘More nurses on our wards means each nurse can spend more time with each patient, ensuring better care as a result. More staff nurses means health boards won’t have to fork out for expensive agency nurses, saving our NHS money in the long run.’