Thank you, Buffy, for opening this debate. I would like to begin by saying that the Welsh Conservatives wholeheartedly support the extension of section 25B of the Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Act 2016 to include community nursing and mental health in-patient settings. We support this extension because it is clear to us that the situation nurses find themselves in is both unacceptable and, in the long term, completely unsustainable for the profession.

Every week, nurses give the Welsh NHS an additional 67,780 hours, equivalent to an extra 1,807 nurses. This essentially means that nurses are being systematically overworked by health boards who are ultimately cutting corners by not employing enough nurses for patient care. Long term, this is detrimental to the mental and physical health of nurses, which then creates a higher risk of patient care being compromised, and has a huge knock-on effect on the family life of nurses as they spend more and more time away from their family, working longer and longer shifts. It creates a negative impression that nursing is a poor career choice.

I was honestly shocked by the number of cases at Welsh health boards where understaffing has led to deep concerns about patient safety, and has even led to injury and death—from a shortage of midwives in Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board's maternity services, where an independent review found that a third of stillbirths could have been prevented with proper care and treatment, to shortages in Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board's vascular and emergency services, where the Royal College of Surgeons found that there were immediate operational pressures due to consultant availability and nurse staffing within the health board. It is clear that severe staffing pressures are ongoing and are leading to serious deficiencies in care.

Turning to mental health, the Ockenden report into Tawel Fan found that some patients had experienced a loss of dignity, being left in urine-soaked sheets or found wandering the ward unsupervised. Similarly, the Holden report into the Hergest unit in north Wales found that inadequate staffing meant that the needs of patients in the unit were not met, and this resulted in patient dignity and safety being compromised. The Welsh Conservative group's own research has highlighted unsafe staffing levels in Wales's accident and emergency units, and it is clear that the Welsh NHS workforce is continuing to face burnout after several years of the pandemic, alongside increasing waiting lists and pressures in emergency care. I, like many others, believe that the Welsh Government should provide more support in this area, and focus efforts to increase student places, and ultimately support the larger NHS workforce.

As the Minister will know, Wales is the only nation of the UK that does not publish national statistics for nursing vacancies in Wales, leaving many to believe that there is something to hide. But Members will be interested to know that figures given to me by the Royal College of Nursing Cymru, show that there were 2,900 nursing vacancies in 2021-22, costing the Welsh NHS £133.4 million in emergency nursing—an increase of 41 per cent from the previous financial year. And, as my colleague, Buffy Williams has also mentioned, the RCN found that there were an additional 144 full-time equivalent nurses and 597 full-time healthcare support workers on section 25B wards in November 2020, compared to March 2018, which was before section 25B came into force. This shows that extending the section 25B on nurse staffing levels will have a major positive impact. I think all Members here will agree with me that failing to extend section 25B is highly unacceptable. And I therefore urge all Members here to support the motion. Thank you.