Midwife shortage is contributing to near misses in wards

Midwife shortages are contributing to “adverse events and near misses" on UK labour wards, according to a report published in this week's British Medical Journal.

As part of the study, researchers examined practices in the labour wards of seven maternity units in the north west of England. They observed the organisation of care on each labour ward, analysed records, and interviewed all midwives on duty.

All the maternity units included in the study reported experiencing midwifery staffing shortages and most units were forced to rely on ‘bank’ or agency midwives to maintain minimum staffing levels.

Despite these midwifery staff shortages, high-risk practices, such as giving drugs to induce labour and performing epidurals, were being continued in all units studied.

Many adverse events and "near misses" were caused by these shortages, and near misses went unreported in all units.

Staffing shortages were also reported to preventing uptake of scheduled training sessions.

The report’s authors led by Brenda Ashcroft from the university of Salford noted: "We observed many latent failures, 'accidents waiting to happen', in this study."

The study concluded that “despite the exemplary dedication of midwives, the system cannot operate safely and effectively when the number of midwives is inadequate, midwives are poorly deployed, and they are unable to undertake training and update their skills”.

Commenting on the report Shadow Health Secretary Dr Liam Fox said it was “worrying” and described a “typical picture” of the staff shortages facing maternity units.

(SP)