§ BARONESS PHILLIPSMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are aware of the growing concern of the Royal College of Midwives that the hitherto efficient service given to mothers and babies is in danger of deterioration.
§ BARONESS BIRKMy Lords, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Social Services has received no representations to this effect from the Royal College of Midwives. The reorganisation of the National Health Service should help by bringing together the different elements of the maternity services, hitherto administered by three separate bodies, under a single authority. But if the Royal College will bring to the notice of the noble Baroness, Lady Phillips, examples of cases in which deterioration is 2 thought likely as a consequence of reorganisation or because resources are said to be lacking, my right honourable friend will be glad to investigate.
§ BARONESS PHILLIPSMy Lords, while thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Birk, for her reply, may I ask her whether she is aware that the Royal College of Midwives have throughout adopted a very dignified posture, that they have deliberately refrained from withdrawing labour, as has been suggested in other branches of the profession, but they are concerned about the fact that their members are leaving the profession because of conditions? I feel that events have overtaken us. Perhaps the noble Baroness's right honourable friend is now looking into this matter?
§ BARONESS BIRKMy Lords, I thank my noble friend for her remarks on this matter. Midwives are included in the Inquiry which the Secretary of State has set up under Lord Halsbury. I am aware that midwives have not taken industrial action, but they are included with the nurses as part of the subject of the independent Inquiry. I do not think there is anything further I can add at this moment, except to say that the number by which they have diminished. which my noble friend referred to, is quite small, and is mainly due to the fact that more and more mothers are having their babies in hospital.
§ BARONESS MASHAM OF ILTONMy Lords, when the results of the latest dispute die down, may I ask the Minister 3 whether Her Majesty's Government intend to mount an intensified campaign to recruit more midwives and nurses, who are so desperately needed? Does the noble Baroness know that some midwives are doing two jobs, and being paid for only one?
§ BARONESS BIRKMy Lords, in reply to the second part of the question of the noble Baroness, Lady Masham of Ilton, if the noble Baroness has any details of such cases, perhaps she would make sure that I or my noble friend Lord Wells Pestell receives them, and they will be forwarded to the Secretary of State. Turning to the first part of the question, it is part of the objective underlying the restructuring of the Health Service to try to recruit more nurses; and in using the word "nurses" in the wider sense I am including midwives. However, I must also point out that one reason why we are in the present situation is due to the cuts in public expenditure introduced at the end of last year by the previous Government.