Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:10 pm on 11 May 2022.
Thanks very much. Well, we were really pleased that we brought in a safe level of nursing staffing in Wales—the first in the UK to do that—and we're very pleased that that is being assessed and being considered at the moment. Obviously, then, we are looking to see what more we need to do in this space. Now, I have regular discussions with the Royal College of Nursing, and they come up with this on a regular basis; it's always top of their agenda. It is more complex to ensure that this is delivered within the community, because how do you assess that? A community is not the same thing as a ward, so there are very different things to measure. It's much more complex a situation to assess what a safe level of nursing staffing would be. So, we are in the process of further discussions all the time on this issue, but it's far more complex than it was in relation to that, compared to introducing it in a hospital situation.