Maternity Services

Baroness Barker Excerpts

Thursday 9th February 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I agree with the work by my noble friends, including the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, to put the importance of midwifery continuity of care at the centre of everything. The survey to which my noble friend’s question refers shows that that is coming through in terms of a consistent message that having that confidence in the person in treating them is vital to all of this. That remains important. Key to this is the workforce, so this is one of the things that is being built into the workforce plan. That is starting with ensuring that we have new people coming in. The 1,200 graduates that we now have going into training each year are a vital part of making sure that we can deliver.

[Baroness Barker (LD)]

My Lords, report after report shows that the current system of treating maternity and reproductive health services on an episodic basis is costly and inefficient. Will the Government undertake to review that so that we can begin to go back to the system where staff were trained in both maternity and general nursing? We could therefore treat women on the basis of the whole of their lifestyle and get back to doing the most important jobs, such as making postpartum contraception available, which in the end would not only enable women to be treated more safely but save the NHS money.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

That question probably deserves a more detailed reply then I can give here in 30 seconds. In terms of the direction of travel, continuity of care, not just in the maternity service but in understanding that person and their needs, has to be the right thing to do to make sure that we have cradle-to-grave treatment with people who know your case. So I agree with that direction of travel and I will follow up with a more detailed response.