Diane demands that David Cameron fulfills promise to provide 3000 new midwives

04 May 2011
Diane Abbott MP, the Shadow Minister for Public Health, has slammed David Cameron’s broken promise to increase midwife numbers by 3,000.

Commenting on International Midwives Day, Labour Shadow Health Minister Diane Abbott said:

‘Before the election David Cameron, Andrew Lansley and Nick Clegg promised more midwives.

Now their silence on this issue is deafening.

The needs of pregnant women are greater than ever before. The birth-rate remains high, yet David Cameron is putting an entire generation of nurses, midwives and NHS staff on the scrapheap.

On International Midwives Day, I will be writing to David Cameron and Andrew Lansley to urge them to fulfil their promise.

3,000 more midwives are needed to deliver a safe, high quality maternity service.

David Cameron talks of his promises to train midwives. But there is also no point in training new midwives if there are no jobs for them.

The Government have also been silent on its commitment to Maternity Matters, the flagship policy on maternity services launched by the previous Government in April 2007.

On International Midwives Day, David Cameron and Andrew Lansley should have the guts to explain their plans to rip into frontline health services through axing 5,209 clinical posts, such as nurses and midwives.’

Writing in the Sun in January last year, Mr Cameron said: “We are going to make our midwives’ lives a lot easier… we will increase the number of midwives by 3,000.”

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