Wales needs its own a whistleblowing hotline to allow NHS staff to be able to anonymously report their concerns.

The Welsh Government Health Minister recently confirmed to me in a Written Question that there is currently “no whistleblowing hotline for NHS staff”.

Instead, staff are expected to contact a number, run by the Royal Mencap Society, that covers NHS and social care employees in both England and Wales.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats are calling on the Welsh Government to introduce a free hotline that is available solely for NHS staff in Wales.

It is absolutely critical that staff working within our NHS feel they are able to speak out and raise their concerns and that these concerns are taken seriously and acted upon.

The recent horrific scandals at Mid Staffordshire hospitals further highlighted the importance of NHS staff being able to blow the whistle on problems they have seen in their workplace. Routine neglect sadly became the norm at these hospitals due to a culture of fear, bullying and secrecy where staff were too scared to speak out. Such a scandal must never be allowed to happen again.

Whistleblowers are a valuable source of intelligence and should always be encouraged to come forward. If there are issues out there, then medical staff have a duty to disclose these concerns as it could save lives.

It is clear that for too long the Welsh Labour Government has sat back and thought it is fine for NHS organisations themselves to deal with whistleblowers. That just isn’t enough. People often don’t want to complain through their own organisation and would rather go straight to the top. Therefore the Welsh Government needs to strengthen the help offered to these brave people by offering a well-publicised hotline number. At the moment, the options available for those who want to voice genuine concerns and report problems are not coherent enough. The current number is not particularly well publicised and is unclear whether it is also for staff of NHS Wales. We need a Wales-wide point of contact.

Health is a devolved issue, therefore I see no reason why England and Wales should have the same whistleblowing initiatives. Wales needs its own hotline that is free to call and is available to all NHS staff.

Every so often, Assembly Members have the opportunity to form their own law. We put forward an idea, it is entered into the ballot and then one of the ideas is drawn at random. The AM then has the opportunity to take that forward and it could eventually become law in Wales. Last month I was not lucky enough to be selected but my idea is something I feel strongly about so I will continue to campaign for it.

In the wake of the Mid Staffordshire scandal, I am calling for a change in the law to require minimum staffing levels for nurses in Wales.

The idea of setting minimum staffing quotas was put forward in the Francis Report, which looked at failings in the care provided by Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust and cited long-term low staffing levels as one reason which contributed to poor treatment.

While the Francis report predominately dealt with the NHS in England, figures from the Royal College of Nurses have revealed that Wales lags behind the rest of the UK in key indicators of nurse staffing levels. In Scottish wards there are 8.8 patients per patient, England 8.5, Northern Ireland 7.2 but in Wales each nurse will have to care for 10.5 patients. We also have the fewest nurses as a percentage of all hospital staff.

It is staggering to see the vast difference in the ratio of nurses to patients in Wales when compared to the rest of the UK. Once again Welsh Labour’s poverty of ambition has led to our NHS having to do more, but with less.

Nurses in Wales are working incredibly hard and are doing a great job, but there simply are not enough of them on Welsh wards to cope with the ever increasing number of patients. Earlier this year I visited an A&E department with a family member. Whilst I was there I met a nurse who was due to finish her shift 5 hours before she saw us. She could not go home because it would have left the ward with a dangerously low number of members of staff on duty. She was doing a very good job but was understandably tired. If she had made a mistake, would that have been her fault? Nurses make life and death decisions every day, they need to be as alert as possible.

Legislation requiring a minimum number of nurses per patient has been introduced in California, New South Wales and Victoria (Australia) where it has improved nurse staffing levels and patient care. Studies in California have shown that such a change has significantly reduced mortality rates.

Nurses who have fewer patients to tend to are able to spend a greater amount of their time with each patient and, as a result, can provide better care. Better care would mean we can get people out of hospital quicker and end the so called ‘bed-blocking’ we have heard a lot about recently, clearing space for other needy patients.

More time spent with patients would mean they would be more easily able to identify potential problems, then they are able to a play a preventative, rather than simply reactive, role. Not only would this lead to fewer patients needing treatment, but it would consequently mean less cost to the NHS.

While employing more nurses will mean more spend in the short term, I believe that the improvement in patient care and long term saving for the Welsh NHS will be worth it.