The Royal College of Nursing yesterday accused the government of exacerbating an already serious midwifery crisis.
Student midwives’ leaders expressed alarm over the government’s decision to end a grant for trainees.
Following the Department of Health decision to scrap midwifery diplomas in favour of degrees, the £6,000-a-year non-means-tested grant will no longer be available from 2008.
Degree students are only eligible for the smaller and means-tested bursaries.
The Royal College of Midwives is warning that the crisis on maternity wards will worsen as many considering taking up midwifery, especially older students with families, will be put off by student debt and is calling on the government to reverse its decision.
RCM education research manager Sue MacDonald warned: ‘We need a continuous supply of new midwives to replace those retiring.’
Meanwhile, the Council of Deans for Nursing and Health Professions are in talks with the DoH on the proposed change, with meetings planned for September.
The RCM has also slammed the government over the decision to remove midwives from the Home Office Shortage Occupation List (HOSOL) for fast track employment.
RCM director Frances Day-Stirk said: ‘This is a short-sighted decision that shows a worrying lack of understanding of the problems facing England’s maternity services.
‘It is also disconcerting that the decision has been influenced by NHS financial problems and re-organisation, and not on the needs of the mothers and babies using maternity services.
‘The government has set a target for maternity services and to meet this we need many thousands more midwives, yet this simply reduces the options we have.
‘Let me be clear about the position. England is educating fewer midwives, not enough is being done to bring those who have left the profession back in, and nearly half of midwives will retire over the next decade.
‘Against this the birthrate is rising and births are becoming more complex.
‘The real solution to delivering a first-class maternity service is to educate and grow enough of our own.
‘Until then we need overseas midwives who do a valuable and welcome job.
‘We need to keep all the doors open for recruitment, yet the government is busy slamming them shut.
‘This decision will hamper not help the government to meet its guarantees for maternity services and needs to be re-thought.
‘We will be taking our concerns to them as a matter of urgency.’