Midwives
(asked on 12th July 2022) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many midwives there were in the NHS in England in (a) December 2019 and (b) the most recent month for which data is available.
Answered by
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics for England. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, but excludes staff working in primary care, general practitioner surgeries, local authorities, and other providers. In December 2019, there were 22,061 full time equivalent (FTE) midwives working in HCHS in England. In April 2022, the most recent data available, there were 21,741 FTE midwives in HCHS in England.
The following table shows the headcount and number of FTE midwives working in the HCHS in England and each National Health Service region in March 2022 and March 2021.
| HCHS midwives headcount | HCHS midwives, FTE | |||
March 2021 | March 2022 | March 2021 | March 2022 |
| |
England | 27,188 | 26,636 | 22,523 | 22,027 |
|
East of England | 2,807 | 2,800 | 2,321 | 2,307 |
|
London | 4,986 | 4,911 | 4,335 | 4,262 |
|
Midlands | 5,064 | 5,015 | 4,147 | 4,076 |
|
North East and Yorkshire | 4,214 | 4,033 | 3,475 | 3,331 |
|
North West | 3,731 | 3,614 | 3,100 | 3,009 |
|
South East | 3,882 | 3,793 | 3,121 | 3,041 |
|
South West | 2,505 | 2,473 | 2,024 | 2,001 |
|
Source: NHS Digital HCHS Workforce Statistics