Top of page: A baby has her feet measured at the Royal Children’s Hospital and above a newborn baby makes his entrance into the world.
By Lucy Ashton
Overworked maternity and midwifery staff shoring up services in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde need support urgently, says MSP Jackie Baillie.
It comes amidst revelations that the amount of overtime hours being notched up by hard-pressed staff has soared by almost 400 per cent.
Figures obtained by Scottish Labour have shown that in 2022/23 a staggering 1,715 hours of overtime was worked by staff in maternity and midwifery units within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which covers Dame Jackie’s Dumbarton constituency.
This figure has grown by a remarkable 386 per cent, since before the pandemic.
The data reveals that just 353 overtime hours were contributed during 2018/19 – with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde topping the chart for overtime worked in Scotland’s NHS boards.
This comes as the NHS remains in the grips of a workforce crisis – with staff forced to plug staffing gaps through overtime.
Scottish Labour is calling on the SNP government to act to tackle staffing issues in maternity and midwifery units before overworked staff burn out.
Scottish Labour’s spokesperson for Health, Social Care and NHS Recovery, Dame Jackie Baillie, right, said: “NHS staff are working tirelessly day in and day out to provide the level of care that residents in the Dumbarton constituency and throughout Scotland, deserve.
“The truth is that local midwifery and maternity unit workers are being worked into the ground to care for patients and plug staffing gaps caused by SNP mismanagement.
“The astronomic rise in overtime hours worked by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s maternity nursing staff and midwives shows that services remain under pressure and that the SNP government’s plans for NHS Recovery are failing. This must be addressed now.
“If this situation is allowed to continue, we risk seeing staff burnout and poorer services for NHS patients.
“Enough is enough – it’s time for the SNP government to wake up and act before this crisis gets worse.”
| Health Board | Overtime hours 2018/19 or 2019/20* | Overtime hours 2022/23
[FIGURE A] |
Change vs pre-pandemic levels
[FIGURE B] |
| NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 818 | 2079 | 154% |
| NHS Borders | 557 | 874 | 57% |
| NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 630 | 1,292 | 105% |
| NHS Fife | 361 | 804 | 123% |
| NHS Forth Valley | No response | ||
| NHS Grampian | 4996 | 4,038 | -19% |
| NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 353 | 1,715 | 386% |
| NHS Highland | Not provided | ||
| NHS Lothian | 1,552 | 3,366 | 117% |
| NHS Lanarkshire** | See note | ||
| NHS Orkney | Not recorded | ||
| NHS Shetland | 716 | 843 | 18% |
| NHS Tayside | Not provided | ||
| NHS Western Isles | No data | 23 | N/A |
| TOTAL | |||
*NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Fife, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Lothian provided data for 2019/20. NHS Lanarkshire provided data for overtime hours worked by all staff within women’s services – not just maternity and midwifery. It showed that 10,567 overtime hours were worked in 2019/20. By 2022/22, this had risen by 5% to 11,101. Source: Scottish Labour FOI.
Further to this, in England last August, midwifery leaders sounded the alarm over poor workplace cultures in maternity services.
Some midwives are not always speaking up when they see something that is not right, and not communicating well enough with colleagues or people in their care, according to a new Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) report.
The regulator warned there are “signs” of poor workplace cultures in maternity services. Often the actions of individual professionals are shaped by the culture and environment in which they work – with bullying, excessive workloads, burnout and unsupportive management being contributory factors in major failings of care across different sectors.
Some 28% of nurses and midwives registered to work in the UK are from black or minority ethnic backgrounds.
Yet the report concludes that the “health and care sector is failing to provide a just, inclusive environment in which all black and minority ethnic nurses, midwives and nursing associates can thrive and progress.”
“We’re shining a light on those factors, including further evidence of racism and discrimination.
“Meanwhile new starters across the professions aren’t always getting the standard of support they need to feel confident in their roles.
“And in maternity care, there are more signs that workplace cultures aren’t always supporting midwives to escalate concerns or communicate effectively with women and families.
“This is just the start of our journey toward better use of regulatory insight so we can keep on speaking up for a healthy and inclusive environment for our professions, for the benefit of everyone touched by nursing and midwifery care.”
Birte-Harlev Lam, executive director midwife at the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), said: “No health professional goes to work to do a bad job and we must all act when workplace cultures stop safe and high-quality care from happening.
“Crucial to this is supporting staff early in their careers and those from overseas.
“They should not face racism or discrimination from anyone, especially their colleagues, and when this does happen, we must root it out.
“The RCM – along with other organisations – is at the forefront of efforts to tackle these issues and drive change in our maternity services; so that staff can deliver the high-quality care they aspire to, and so that women and families get the care they rightly should expect and deserve.”
Dr Habib Naqvi, chief executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, added: “We welcome the approach taken by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in producing this vital and comprehensive Spotlight On Nursing And Midwifery report.
“We also welcome the acknowledgement in the report that racism affects retention of nursing and midwifery staff as well as patient care.
“Tackling racial inequities in maternal and neonatal healthcare is a key area of focus for the NHS Race and Health Observatory. We look forward to working with the NMC in transforming insights on professional learning and practice into tangible actions for change.”