22
Dec 2020
Thousands more doctors and midwives needed for maternity units to be deemed safe
It has emerged that the numbers of doctors employed in maternity units in England will need to be raised by a fifth in order to make wards safer for mothers and babies.
NHS England has demanded hospitals take action to improve the safety of mothers and babies in the wake of the recent damning report into poor care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust.
President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Dr Eddie Morris has said that putting in place all the recommendations would mean a 20 per cent increase in the numbers of obstetricians working in maternity units.
He also warned of the current gaps in rotas for junior doctors, “We know that every single unit in the country has gaps in the rota of the junior doctors and the senior trainees who are delivery service, which I think shows that we do have a significant problem around staffing those rotas.
“When we look at consultant obstetricians, we don’t know yet exactly how many more staff we need, but if we’re going to expand the work that consultants do along the lines of Donna Ockenden’s recommendations, we may well need an expansion in our consultant workforce of somewhere around 20 per cent. Now that would need training and would need considerable efforts to encourage more doctors into the speciality.”
The Royal College of Midwives has also stressed it believes the NHS in England needs at least a further 3,000 midwives.
NHS England’s chief nurse Ruth May, has said “Despite considerable progress having been made in improving maternity safety, there continues to be too much variation in experience and outcomes for women and their families.”
Chadwick Lawrence’s team of medical negligence lawyers have years of experience in high value and complex medical negligence compensation claims and have an excellent record. The team is led by Tony May, a specialist cerebral palsy and birth injury solicitor, who has over 20 years experience in handling cases in which babies have been brain damaged or sustained other injuries as a result of medical negligence. He and his team continue to represent many cerebral palsy children and young adults in medical negligence claims. Tony also acts as the Court of Protection Deputy for many of the cerebral palsy and brain damaged clients that he has represented, so we can continue to support you after your case is settled. Tony can be contacted by email on tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk. Alternatively, please call and speak to any of Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist medical negligence Legal Aid and no win, no fee solicitors for free legal advice on Freephone 0800 304 7382.
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