THE Welsh public spending watchdog and nursing leaders expressed concern today at rising NHS vacancies.

Wales’s Auditor General Adrian Crompton reported that there were 6,800 vacancies across all NHS staff groups at the end of March 2022, with nursing and midwifery short of nearly 2,500 workers.

According to the report, more staff are leaving the health service than at any time in the last five years, while a rise in sickness absence led to an estimated 1.4 million working days being lost in 2022-23.