The NHS maternity service is in a state of emergency

According to a recent report published by the Royal College of Midwives, England is short of 3500 midwives and the NHS maternity service is in a state of emergency. As well as the shortage of midwives the situation is worse due to the fact that over a third of the UK’s NHS midwives are nearing retirement age. The statistics are that two in five midwives in Scotland and Northern Ireland are in their 50s and 60s and over 1000 midwives in England are 60 or older.  When those midwives retire, this could seriously challenge our maternity units even further and could even put more pressure on an already stretched service. The Royal College of Midwives have previously warned of a retirement time-bomb and this has not improved.  The issue with an ageing workforce and already existing shortages are further compounded by the fact that only one extra midwife is being hired per maternity unit per year.

The number of babies born in England in 2015 was over 50,000 higher than 10 years ago and over 100,000 more than 2001.  Another long-term trend is the age profile of mothers.  Across the UK there are fewer births to young women and more to older women.  There is an increase of over 12,000 births per year to women aged 40 or older.  This is mainly down to women leaving raising their families until later as they wish to concentrate on their careers first.

Cora Barnes, Litigation Executive, Clinical Negligence department at Alsters Kelley LLP says, “This all has an impact upon the maternity services.  Older women who become pregnant may require more care throughout their pregnancy and we must ensure that there are enough midwives in post so women get safe high quality care that they need and deserve.  Clearly if this does not happen, the maternity units could be opening themselves up to risks of poor quality and negligence.  Maternity units are already struggling to provide the best care due to understaffing.  The less time midwives have with women to deal with issues such as breast feeding, or to stop smoking, it is more likely that signs of post-natal depression could be missed, putting further pressure on the NHS services.”

In addition, the removal of the student bursary in England is already having an impact on recruitment and there has been a drastic fall in UCAS applications for both midwifery and nursing degrees.  There is also a lot of uncertainty about the working rights of EU nationals to remain working in the UK post-Brexit.  With 1,300 midwives working in the NHS in England alone, the national shortage of midwives could be well over 4,500, but more in the region of 5,000 without EU nationals.

It is clear that there is a need to urgently recruit the right amount of midwives to meet the demands of the ever growing birth rate.  This will then allow women and their babies to get the best possible start in life and will then save the NHS money in the long run.  Action needs to be taken now to avert this crisis before it is too late.