Health chiefs tackle midwife crisis

TWO birth services suspended by Swansea Bay University Health Board due to staffing pressures could be reinstated.

A temporary halt was called on the home birth service and birth centre service at Neath Port Talbot Hospital in order to focus resources in Swansea’s Singleton Hospital.

Midwifery staffing levels have been described as “critical” in a report going before the health board on November 25. It said Covid-related sickness, Covid shielding and other absences were to blame.

The report said further reductions in staff numbers could result in “unsafe service provision” and poor patient outcomes.

Work has been going on behind the scenes to address the issue, including the appointment of seven experienced midwives, the use of agency staff as needed, and enhanced overtime. Training has also been suspended and all available midwives mobilised.

The health board’s head of midwifery is attending weekly meetings with a Wales maternity and neonatal network.

Separately, the health board announced last Thursday that it was reinstating early face-to-face contact with community midwives. This was suspended during the pandemic, with a maternity services helpline set up instead. The helpline was closed on November 19.

It said the re-establishment of its home birth service and the birth centre at Neath Port Talbot Hospital was central to its recovery plan.

“We are now starting to see some stabilisation of our staffing situation and have plans in place to re-establish all our services in the near future,” it said on its website.