Save independent midwives!

Abstract

British Journal of Midwifery • April 2014 • Vol 22, No 4 As you well know, earlier this month, the BJM held our annual British Journal of Midwifery Practice Awards. These awards acknowledge outstanding achievement and excellence in midwifery. The evening is always fun and full of excitement as we recognise those new to the profession and those whose contribution to midwifery spans decades (see page 270 for a rundown of all the winners). It is a time both to reflect and to look forward to the upcoming year. However, this year, for one, the excitement of winning an award has been overshadowed. Midwife of the year, Jacqui Tomkins, Independent Midwives UK chair won her award for her work on designing a professional indemnity insurance product that would protect independent midwives (IMs) against the new EU Directive (2011/24/EU). Unfortunately, the very next day the Government refused to support this. The Department of Health (DH) decided that funding Independent Midwives UK members’ insurance will not give patients protection (DH, 2014). This decision by the DH means that the 180 IMs who are currently practising will be out of business. The NHS won’t be able to absorb these extra midwives— even if the IMs wanted to work in the NHS—as more than 5000 registered midwives are currently unable to get a job in the organisation. Furthermore, the 3000 mothers who currently seek the support of IMs will be forced into the NHS, costing it approximately £13 million. Has the Government forgotten what Prime Minister David Cameron said in April 2007? ‘At a time when maternity units in the NHS are threatened with closure, there is a shortage of midwives in the health service generally, and Ministers are struggling to make good their promise of one-to-one care and genuine choice in childbirth, it would be utterly foolish to force independent midwives to cease practising.’ Cameron was right, it is utterly foolish to prevent IMs from practising. Especially as allowing IMs to continue to practise makes financial sense. Based on figures from the last 10 years, risk assessment has shown that insurance payouts would be approximately £850 000; significantly less than the estimated £13 million the new EU Directive is likely to incur. This saving would make a big dent in the proposed £20 billion of efficiency savings that the NHS aims to have by 2015 (DH, 2013). Although the EU Directive won’t affect most midwives directly, if all the women who had chosen to have an IM have to give birth in the NHS, the already over stretched maternity services will be functioning beyond capacity. This will ultimately mean that the care of women will be affected. So let’s fight to save independent midwives for the sake of women if nothing else! BJM