Monday, January 08, 2007

Maternity cuts 'a risk to care'

The government has promised mothers choice by 2009


Maternity services are being pared back, putting the care of women at risk, midwives say.

Staff are being cut and training funds raided as the NHS racks up debts, the Royal College of Midwives reported.

A poll of 102 out of 216 department heads found two thirds thought their units were understaffed and one in five had lost staff in the last year.  

The midwives who responded to the survey reported that 66% of their trusts were in deficit in 2005-6.
Of those who had lost staff, the average decrease was 3.5%, with evidence emerging trusts were increasingly relying on maternity support workers, who are not qualified midwives, to fill the gaps.

The college also found trusts were cutting training budgets, with one in five reporting the entire funds had gone and a similar number saying three quarters had gone.

The results come at a time when the government has pledged to improve access to services.
Ministers have promised that by 2009 women will have a choice of where they give birth and have a named individual midwife to care for her.

But the college said the country's 40,000 midwives were struggling to provide good care

ENOUGH SAID, MASSAGING BUDGETS TO SUIT AN END
THIS IS WHY HANDS FOR HINCHINGBROOKE HAS BEEN SET UP TO RAISE FUNDS FOR MATERNITY AND TO KEEP THIS HIGHLY REGARD AND HIGHLY TRAINED UNIT WHICH IS KNOWN FOR IT'S SAFETY RECORD, OPEN AND FULLY FUNDED AND WITH THE CHOICE AS TO WHERE TO GIVE BIRTH IN 2009 WE NEED TO KEEP THIS UNIT OPEN TO ALLOW MUM AND MUM'S TO BE TO HAVE A REAL CHOICE AND TO BE TREATED IN PERSONAL SURROUNDINGS AND BY HIGHLT TRAINED STAFF BOTH IN AND OUT OF HOSPITAL