THE number of midwives working in hospitals in the Bradford district has risen in the past year.

NHS Digital statistics from May this year, the latest monthly figures, show there were 229 midwives in the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. This was a rise from 194 in May 2017. The figures for Airedale NHS Foundation Trust show there were 91 in May this year, in comparison to 76 in May 2017.

However, the number of NHS midwives in England rose by just 67 in the last year, despite universities turning out over 2,000 newly-trained staff, according to the latest State of Maternity Services Report published today by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM). There were the equivalent of 21,601 full-time midwives working in the NHS in England in May, according to the most recent figures from NHS Digital, up just 67 on a year earlier. RCM chief executive Gill Walton said: “It is of deep concern that we’re only seeing an increase of about one NHS midwife for every 30 or so newly-qualified midwives graduating from our universities. It’s not that new midwives aren’t getting jobs, they are. The problem is that so many existing midwives are leaving the service that the two things almost cancel each other out."