Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-05-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many midwives are currently employed in NHS maternity services, and how many additional midwives will be needed in 2017 to enable the effective operation of the service.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The latest statistics from the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that as at 31 January 2016, there were 21,581 full-time equivalent midwives employed in the National Health Service in England, 21,398 of these work in NHS maternity services.

NHS organisations are best placed to decide how many staff they employ tailoring services to meet the needs of their patients and local communities, to deliver safe care.

The Department has set up Health Education England to deliver a better health and healthcare workforce for England. It is responsible for ensuring a secure workforce supply that reflects the needs of local service users, providers and commissioners of healthcare.