Shropshire midwife recruitment drive to ease sickness crisis
The trust which manages Shropshire's major hospitals is recruiting more midwives to help stop the temporary closures of maternity services.
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust has, for a number of weeks, been affected by short-term and long-term sickness, which has led to the further temporary suspension of some services.
Services for women booked to give birth at Oswestry and Ludlow Midwife-Led Units (MLUs) are currently suspended until 8am on July 11. Day services for expectant mums will continue as normal.
Simon Wright, chief executive of SATH, said: "We have recently appointed four midwives and we have vacancies for three at the moment, so we are going out to advert again.
"We employ about 160 to 170 midwives. We are also looking at if we need a few more staff to recognise the shift in services. I think we will be employing a few more in the next few months just to steady the ship.
"In the past we have relied on our existing staff to work overtime to cover maternity and sickness leave.
“At the moment because of the anxiety that is there they are feeling more nervous in an environment they are less familiar.
"We don't use agency or bank staff to fill any gaps. Midwifery is a highly specialised environment and they work with the parents over a nine month period to get to know them. This is not something that can be picked up quickly.
"This is the first time in a long period where we have had difficulty recruiting.
"We have seen staff retire earlier than what they might have done before because of the pressures and this is a real loss of experienced staff.
"We need the balance of experience and youth.
"We are currently struggling to fill gaps we have never had before due to the intense period of security we are currently under.
"We welcome security and need to be held to account but this extended period is weighing more heavily on staff shoulder. At the moment this feels quite hard for them.
"The reason why we have the most midwife led units is we have never had a problem recruiting midwives until now.
"The worry for me at the moment is that this could make it harder for us to retain services going forward."
