ALL PUSH TOGETHER

CAROLINE FLINT, a past president of the Royal College of Midwives, has reportedly said that doctors are ‘hopeless at childbirth’ andthat the NHS should cut the number of obstetricians by half to save money, investing in more midwives instead.

Frankly, there have been enough cases of midwifery malpractice to sling arrows the other way, but the fact is there are bad eggs in all fields and to turn this into a turf war misses the point: we need more midwives and — with an estimated shortfall of 1,000 nationally — more specialists.

Sniping between the professions is not the way forward.