Women in labour turned away by maternity units

Maternity units in London were forced to close 51 times last year because of overcrowding.

Women in labour were turned away because of the closures, which were caused by shortages of beds and staff.

Most lasted for less than 24 hours but one unit was shut to new admissions for three days.

The shutdowns are revealed in a report which also shows the midwife vacancy rate is 10 per cent in parts of London, partly because of recruitment freezes.

Top obstetricians complain that staff shortages are putting mothers and babies at risk.

Professor Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, head of obstetrics at St George's Hospital in Tooting, said up to half the country's units were understaffed.

"Deliveries in London have been going up by 2.5 per cent every year, which means thousands of extra babies. We need more beds and better planning.

"We do our best in London but if you have 12 beds and 14 women in labour you have just got to move quickly to transfer them to neighbouring hospitals. It is not ideal but the nature of maternity is that it is unpredictable."

The report for the Nursing and Midwifery Council also reveals:

Midwives fear that hospital reorganisations are putting too much pressure on services and leading to errors.

There are not enough midwife supervisors to meet standards and there is a lack of training in how to read fetal monitors.

Trusts are failing to notify the midwife supervising authority of major incidents.

Midwives are too overworked to attend training meetings. There are 4,985 midwives in London, up from 4,590 last year, but demand is soaring and some posts are still empty.

A spokesman for NHS London said all but one of the council's standards had been met and midwifery was a "priority area".

He added: "A continued decrease in midwifery vacancy rates and increase in the number of midwives practising in London is good news but as clinical activity also increases we must ensure supervisors continue to monitor and support midwives in safe practice. We continue to recruit supervisors to undertake this role."

Vacancy rates by maternity unit (including private) - in ascending order
Maternity Service Vacancy % 06/07 No. midwives
St John & St Elizabeth -2.8% 31
Chelsea & Westminster -1.9% 201
Portland 0.6% 65
University College London 2.9% 147
Mayday Hospital 3.5% 178
North Middlesex Hospital 4.1% 123
Harold Wood & King George 4.2% *
Whipps Cross Hospital 4.3% 172
King's College Hospital 4.4% 241
Barnet & Chase Farm 5.0% 260
Guy's & St Thomas's 5.3% 285
The Royal London Hospital 6.4% 147
Kingston Hospital 7.3% 180
Homerton Hospital 7.7% 175
Lewisham Hospital 8.4% 129
Ealing Hospital 8.9% 110
Whittington Hospital 9.0% 171
St Mary's Hospital 9.1% 156
Princess Royal 9.4% 136
St Helier and Epsom Hospitals 9.4% 234
Queen Mary's (Sidcup) 9.5% 142
West Middlesex Hospital 9.8% 131
Queen Elizabeth 11.6% 153
Queen Charlotte's Hospital 13.1% 191
St George's Hospital 13.3% 191
Central Middlesex & Northwick Park 13.9% 197
Hillingdon Hospital 14.5% 134
Royal Free Hospital 17.2% 118
Newham Hospital 18.4% 168
Lindo Wing (St Mary's) 29.3% *
London Total 8.3% 4985

As at 31st March 2007

  • Not available
  • Source : Local Supervising Authorities of London

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in