Midwifery courses cut, Labour claims
Midwives magazine: Issue 6 :: 2011
Around 2000 places to study midwifery, nursing and clinical healthcare have been cut, the Labour party claims.
It has obtained statistics that there were 29,332 students in 2010, compared with 27,410 this year.
The party used Freedom of Information requests to get the English university course figures, which it claims reveal London lost 400 places and the West Midlands lost 509.
Cathy Warwick, RCM general secretary, said: ‘If these figures prove to be correct we will be deeply concerned.
‘Just a few months ago the government also promised to maintain the number of midwifery training places.
‘I will be urgently seeking clarification and reassurance on this from the government.’
The news comes just days after the government’s controversial NHS reform plans were given the nod in the House of Commons.
Shadow health secretary John Healey said: 'David Cameron promised to protect the NHS but these cuts to the funding of important university courses will mean fewer nurses and midwives in the years to come - and all the while, the Prime Minister continues to waste millions on his reorganisation of the NHS bureaucracy.’
A DH spokeswoman said ‘near record’ numbers of nurses and midwives are working in the NHS.
She continued: 'Strategic Health Authorities are working to ensure that student nursing commissions are appropriate to meet local demand in their areas.
'In future, Healthcare Education England, advised by the Centre for Workforce Intelligence, will provide a national overview of workforce planning, to ensure that the plans of local NHS service providers are robust and deliver the high quality workforce the NHS relies upon.'
