Low pay, high pressure and job dissatisfaction are turning midwives away from the profession and the NHS, the Royal College of Midwives has said. This comes after a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service that showed Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, who run maternity services from Royal Bolton Hospital and Ingleside Birth Centre (currently closed) have lost 34 midwives in the last six months.
The data provided by Bolton FT did show they had recruited 20 midwives in that time and that seven had moved from full-time to part-time. The trust runs services across Bolton and Ingleside Birth Centre in Salford and said that staffing pressure was the reason it could not be reopened.
They said the 'regrettable' closure of Ingleside was due to pressures on services because of Covid-19 initially.
