Conservatives have warned of the Government’s indifference to failures in NHS maternity services, after it emerged that the employment of support staff could be putting mothers and babies at risk.
Commenting on claims that some hospital trusts are using maternity support staff to care for pregnant women even though they lack the proper training, John Baron was scathing of the Government’s record.
The Shadow Health Minister protested: "In the last 5 years we have seen a huge increase in the number of live births but no increase in the number of midwives. Some mothers can't get the one-to-one midwife care or level of midwife support which should be regarded as basic.”
Mr Baron declared: "With dozens of maternity units under threat of closure across the country, it seems that Labour have no idea of the standard of care being delivered, and appears indifferent to the fact that service closure will reduce standards.”
He was speaking after a report, compiled by Kings College, London, and commissioned by the Department of Health, showed that additional staff drafted in to help midwives with paperwork and non-clinical duties are being deployed on patient care work for which they have not been trained.
The report found that in some hospitals, midwife posts were removed from wards, and replaced with maternity support staff roles. Some support staff were actually carrying out tasks which would normally be undertaken by a fully trained midwife, for example, minor examinations.