§ 17. Mrs. Knightasked the Minister of Health why the salary of Miss S. A. Rogers, a State Registered Nurse employed at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, dropped from £725 per annum on 1st December, 1965, to £545 per annum on 1st January, 1966.
§ Mr. LoughlinMiss Rogers decided to undertake midwifery training and received the appropriate training allowance—£545 per annum—for a pupil midwife who is already a State registered nurse.
§ Mrs. KnightIs the hon. Gentleman aware that there is a severe shortage of midwives? Would he not agree that it hardly encourages recruitment if a nurse who has already achieved her S.R.N. and who then goes on to midwifery training must accept a drop in salary of £180 during the 12 months of that training?
§ Mr. LoughlinIt may appear so, but if a State registered nurse were seconded for midwifery training by the hospital concerned, she would, of course, receive her full wages during that period. There is, I suggest, an essential difference where a person is securing an additional qualification. One has to be very careful then, because it does not necessarily 1003 follow that this securing of an additional qualification, or two, will mean that that person will go into that speciality.
§ Mrs. KnightIn view of the unsatisfactory nature of that reply, I beg to give notice that I will raise the matter on the Adjournment as early as possible.