Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the ratio of midwives to patients in the NHS was in each year since 2010.
The ratio of midwives to patients is not collected centrally. Annual data showing the ratio of births to midwives is collected by the Health and Social Care Information Centre and attached below for the years 2010 – 2013.
Data as at 30 September each year
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
Registered full-time equivalent (FTE) midwives |
20,126 |
20,519 |
20,935 |
21,284 |
Number of all births |
690,513 |
691,739
|
697,598 |
667,620 |
Ratio (births per FTE midwife) |
34.3
|
33.7 |
33.3 |
31.4 |
There were 21,670 registered midwives on 30 September 2014 however the ratio of (all) births per FTE midwife cannot be provided as the birth data for 2014 is not yet available.
There has been an increase of 2,231 (11.1%) FTE qualified midwives since May 2010.