Maternity Services
Health
Written answers and statements, 16 June 2009
Robert Wareing (Liverpool, West Derby, Independent)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his most recent estimate is of the number of midwives required to maintain the standard of healthcare for pregnant women in each of the next three years; and if he will make a statement.
Ann Keen (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health; Brentford & Isleworth, Labour)
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced a package of measures in February 2008 to support strategic health authority plans to recruit an extra 1,000 midwives by 2009, rising to around 4,000 by 2012, dependent on the birth rate continuing to rise.