Oral Answers to Questions

Hazel Blears Excerpts

Tuesday 18th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Burns]

The hon. Gentleman raises a valid point. The NHS in England has regular contact and discussions with the NHS in other parts of the United Kingdom, and will continue to do so because both the UK and the devolved authorities can learn a considerable amount from sharing views and practice.

[Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)]

13. What recent estimate he has made of the number of midwives working in the NHS.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Anne Milton)]

There were 20,654 full-time equivalents in June 2011—a rise of 522 or 2.6% since May 2010. That is a record.

[Hazel Blears]

The Minister might know that the midwife-led unit at Salford Royal hospital is due to open in the next few weeks, and I want to put on the record my thanks to the midwives there who carry the heaviest work load in the north-west and are doing a brilliant job. She will not know, however, that last year there were 2,500 extra births in Greater Manchester that were neither expected nor planned for, that there are current vacancies for midwives at St Mary’s hospital and that mothers are being pressured to leave hospital sometimes within two or three hours of giving birth. What assurances can she give me that the same standards of safety and quality applying at Salford Royal will be available to Salford families in the future?

[Anne Milton]

We need to ensure that they are, which is one of the reasons we have asked the Centre for Workforce Intelligence to undertake a pretty in-depth study of the nursing maternity work force during 2011-12. I can reassure the right hon. Lady that the current number of midwifery students entering training is at a record level—more than 2,500—and I join her in paying tribute to our midwives.