68 new midwives to join Bedfordshire Hospitals Trust - but recruitment could take 2 years
Maternity services staffing at Bedford Hospital and the Luton and Dunstable Hospital is due to increase by 68 extra midwives under recruitment plans, although the process could take up to two years to complete, a meeting heard.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated these services ‘inadequate’ in July 2024 and again in a report last month, with an inspection team having returned unannounced last July.
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has acted quickly since the latest visits to implement a number of service improvements, said a report to Luton Borough Council’s scrutiny health and social care review group.
Trust chief executive David Carter told the committee: “Our board signed off a significant increase in our midwifery and obstetric workforce last week.
“We need to ensure we can keep our unit safe, and release our staff for appraisal, training and incident clearance,” he explained.
“Some real positives were in the report. There were several issues about our estate, but that was before many of these were resolved when we moved into the new acute services block in November.”
The relocation at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital site “was a phenomenal achievement for staff moving such a large service, essentially over a 12-hour period”, acknowledged the Trust’s chief nurse Liz Lees.
“A perinatal improvement programme within the organisation began in January 2025. We commissioned some extra support with two improvement directors to help us shape that work across the services, not just in maternity.
“This has focused on refining our user experience, looking after our staff, quality and safety governance, and better clinical care. We’ve tried to focus on the health and wellbeing of our staff.
“Our demand is constantly outstripping our capacity, hence the extra staff based on a review. The board has approved a sum of 68 full-time equivalent extra midwives and a number of medical staff on top of our current establishment.
“Some of them are senior midwives and there are about 44 more junior midwives needed. When we recruit newly qualified graduates from university, we must give them a really positive work-based support and induction over 18 months.
“If we get that right and help them in their clinical practice, they’ll stay and we can create the senior midwives of the future. We’ll recruit some every couple of months and increase the number of senior midwives to support them.
“We’re creating a workforce summit to look at how we recruit, retain and develop, as well as providing staff with training and a satisfactory and enjoyable career.
“At present, the pressure is really on all of our medical and midwifery workforce. Our staff are immensely proud of working for the two hospitals. We want our new staff to feel the same, despite the challenges.”
Asked about what happens before the increased recruitment, she replied: “We’ll use temporary staff with our cohort of midwives that do bank (shifts), and we’ve some agency staff as well.
“The workforce plan is likely to take 18 months to two years to fully implement for our substantive staff. A new clinical director started last month and we’ve an experienced director of midwifery arriving in May. The current one retires next month.”