Midwives shortage costs £100m a year
A SHORTAGE of midwives is costing the NHS almost £100million a year, a professional body warned yesterday.
A Royal College of Midwives report found spending on midwifery agency, bank staff and overtime topped £97million in 2016.
This is enough to pay for 2,731 experienced full-time midwives or 4,391 newly-qualified midwives, the RCM said.
Requests sent to 98 per cent of NHS bodies found that 24 of them in England spent more than £1million on agency, bank or overtime staff in 2016.
One NHS body in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland also reported spending more than £1million, the RCM said.
In 2015 ministers imposed a cap on agency spending, but the report suggests this has not tackled the problem of experienced midwives leaving the service.
The investigation also revealed the hourly average spend for agency midwives was £44, compared with £18 for a staff midwife with 10 years experience.
England alone is short of 3,500 midwives, the RCM claims.
Jon Skewes, RCM director for policy, employment relations and communications, said: “This report shows quite clearly that our maternity services are understaffed and under-resourced.
“It is costing more in the long run to pay agency, bank and overtime than it would if services employed the right number of midwives in the first place.
“The first positive step the Government could take is to end public sector pay restraint and fully fund a pay rise for midwives, maternity support workers and other NHS staff.
“This would retain our hardworking, experienced midwives in the service.
“This would mean that when new midwives are trained they are reducing the shortage rather than replacing the midwives who have had enough of seeing their pay packet dwindle while they work harder and harder.”
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “There are over 1,800 more midwives working in the NHS since May 2010 and more than 6,500 currently in training.”
The introduction of measures including flexible working for staff would “ensure the NHS remains a rewarding and attractive place to work”, she added.