Neonatal staffing levels a matter of serious concern for National Assembly Committee

The National Assembly for Wales’s Children and Young People Committee is extremely concerned about the shortage of medical and nursing staff in Welsh neonatal units, particularly in north Wales.

As part of its inquiry into neonatal services, the Committee heard that the shortage of trained neonatal nurses affects every health board and that the All Wales Neonatal Standards on nurse to baby staffing ratios are far from being met.

The Committee was also alarmed to hear that a shortage of medical staff resulted in a number of health boards relying on paediatricians rather than dedicated neonatologists to support their neonatal services.

In its report, the Committee calls on the Welsh Government to ensure that local health boards have detailed plans for addressing medical and nursing shortfalls and to ensure that any baby being born in Wales needing neonatal intensive care is cared for by a neonatologist.

There are currently 13 neonatal care units in Wales. Around 4,000 babies are admitted to these neonatal units each year. This equates to approximately one in nine babies born in Wales.

The inquiry was set up to assess what progress the Welsh Government had made since an inquiry by the former Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee two years ago, had found that units at Welsh hospitals were understaffed, ill-equipped and over-capacity. Its report made 18 recommendations, all of which were accepted by the Welsh Government.

With access to high-dependency cots a particular problem, the Children and Young People Committee also found that more action is needed to ensure that babies requiring special care are occupying the most appropriate cots for their needs.

The Committee recommends that the Welsh Government works with local health boards and the All Wales Neonatal Network to ensure that the required number of cots, at all levels of care, are adequately accessible and staffed appropriately.

“While we recognise that recruitment and reconfiguration exercises have been introduced in many areas across Wales, we remain extremely concerned about medical and nursing staffing levels in local health boards across Wales,” said the Chair of the Children and Young People Committee, Christine Chapman AM.

“We know that staff in neonatal units across Wales work under intense pressure, and we believe that there is an over-reliance on the goodwill and dedication of professionals to keep under-resourced units running.

“Although we have seen progress since the previous Committee’s last report, more improvements are needed. We want to see action, both locally and nationally, to ensure a consistently high-quality service for our most vulnerable babies.”

Bliss Chief Executive Andy Coles said, “Bliss welcomes this report into neonatal care in Wales. This is an opportunity to improve the care provided to sick and premature babies and their families which should be actioned without delay.

“In recent years there has been some significant progress in improving neonatal services, however there still much more to do to ensure the very best care is delivered to these vulnerable babies and their families in Wales.”