THE law which governs safe nurse staffing levels on hospital wards in Wales will be extended to cover children's inpatient wards by April 2021.

The extension to the Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Act will require approval by the Assembly before becoming law.

The Act places a general duty on all health boards to provide sufficient nurses to care for patients sensitively in all areas they provide or commission.

It also places a specific second duty to calculate and maintain the nurse staffing level for adult acute medical inpatient wards and adult acute surgical inpatient wards.

“High quality nursing care with the right numbers makes a real difference to patient care and outcomes," said health minister Vaughan Gething.

"So I’m very pleased to announce this next phase of work that will lead to the extension of this Act to benefit more patients. Work is continuing to look at extending it further to cover health visiting services, district nursing services and mental health inpatient areas.

Chief Nursing Officer, Jean White, said: “I’m delighted the first legislative steps have been taken to enable extension to paediatric inpatient wards. This system empowers and supports nurses to use their professional judgement to understand and plan for the right levels of care.”