Essex NHS Trust to spend over £1 million on recruiting new midwives
It comes after a review recommended more staff were needed
A NHS hospital trust will spend over £1million on staffing at an Essex maternity ward after reports of a shortage.
Princess Alexandra Hospital, in Harlow, will recruit 22 new posts in its midwifery team.
They say they have enough midwives, but are growing the team to benefit families they look after.
According to a trust report, reviews by the director of midwifery, and staffing tool Birthrate Plus, identified a deficit of clinical midwives, maternity support workers, and specialist and managerial positions.
They recommended an investment be made to “maintain safe staffing.”
Giuseppe Labriola, Director of Midwifery at the trust, said in a statement:
“Following the approval of the midwifery workforce review paper at our board meeting on 3 February 2022, we will be investing in additional posts across our midwifery team.
“While we currently have sufficient frontline clinical midwives in all areas, we are now growing our team with additional midwives to support our new maternity support workers, specialist midwives, and we are strengthening our clinical leadership.
“In total, we are investing in approximately 22 whole time equivalent (WTE) posts.
“We are looking forward to recruiting new members of our team, developing our maternity service to benefit families for the future.”