Maternity and Neonatal Services Debate
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Baroness Merron
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Maternity and Neonatal Services
Baroness Merron Excerpts(2 years, 1 month ago)
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Baroness Merron (Lab)
My Lords, Dr Kirkup’s extraordinary report cites a lack of junior staff and, critically, a shortage of midwifery leadership as contributing to the tragedies at East Kent. In the absence of a comprehensive workforce strategy from the Government, and more midwives leaving than joining, what is being done right now to tackle the considerable number of midwifery vacancies that the NHS is suffering? It currently stands at well over 2,000.
Lord Markham (Con)
The number of midwives has been stable over the last four years. We have seen a slight decline over the last year, which is why we have a training and recruitment programme to recruit 1,200 more midwives. In my main point, I echo the comments that Dr Kirkup made: working under pressure is no excuse for staff being rude and aggressive. While we want to recruit the extra numbers, I think that the whole House agrees that there is no excuse for what happened at East Kent.