Concerns about maternity care staffing levels
This week is #Babylossawarenessweek
There has been a lot of press recently in relation to maternity care and the impact that COVID has had on this. We have already posted a blog on the impact of COVID on maternity care, which makes for interesting reading. It has been an extremely concerning time recently not only for those involved in providing maternity care, but for those reliant on the sector for care during their pregnancy.
Yesterday I read an extremely worrying statistic that more than 50% of NHS midwives and maternity support staff say that they are planning to leave the health service in the next year (Poor staffing and safety fears is driving midwives out of the NHS – The Independent).
The impact of this on the maternity sector would be catastrophic. The Royal College of Midwives has already commented that there are concerns about poor staffing levels and the impact this has on midwives delivering safe care. If the above statistics are true then this will seriously impact on the levels of any care provided and is something that needs to be addressed as an urgent priority. The top reason given by staff for wanting to leave was that they didn’t think they could deliver a satisfactory standard of care.
Without improvements to the healthcare, injuries during birth are going to become more and more frequent. Maternity claims already represent a huge part of clinical negligence claims, but this will only rise further if change does not happen. I hope for everyone’s sake that changes do occur, and that they occur sooner rather than later.
If you have been affected by an injury at birth you can contact our expert clinical negligence team who will be happy to discuss any potential claim with you.
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