Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 11 May 2022.
Thank you, Llywydd. It's Nurses Day tomorrow, and I'd like to thank nurses in all parts of Wales for their care and dedication. But I want to draw the Minister's attention to concerns that have been raised with me by a nurse, who tells me that they represent a significant number of nursing staff in Ysbyty Gwynedd. I was saddened to hear the nurse describing the working environment, describing bullying, pressure and unreasonably long working hours, a poor relationship with matrons and senior managers; they say that morale is low, high numbers are leaving—out of 20 fully trained nurses in one department, I was told that five had left in the past three months. One specific concern is that nurses are moved often from their specialist areas to other departments, and that places a strain on nurses, who are afraid of making mistakes, and they're concerned that this is contrary to the guidance of the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Why are they moving? Because agency nurses are refusing to move. There's clearly too much dependence on agency nurses. Minister, I'll write to you on this, and to the health board. Why am I raising this here in the first instance? Well, to try to give confidence to the nurses that their concerns will be taken seriously. They don't have any confidence in the whistleblowing process. Can I have an assurance, therefore, that the Minister will be following up in detail the way that the health board will be responding to these concerns?