...or is Andrew Lansley a stupid tosser? Maternity care.

[VictoriaWould]

The Telegraph
Isn't it already the case that you get your own 'named midwife' and that although you 'have' one, you're still lucky if you get to meet her more than once?
'Every woman shall receive one-to-one care during labour' I thought midwives had been campaigning for years give women in labour this care, except midwives are forced to look after 2 or 3 labourers at a time. Who does he think will give that care?
'Measures to increase the number of midwives in training' doesn't mean any of them will get a job when there training is complete. They actually need to be employed to make a difference! There is not a shortage of midwives in this country. The NHS refuses to employ enough.
'Mr Lansley will also promise more choice for expectant parent about where and when they will give birth' How? When units are shutting all over the country (espescially MLU's) and you have to travel further, to larger (more impersonal) units, where chances of 1 to 1 care is lower and intervention higher and when home birth provisions are being eroded because of the shortage of midwives.
Is this not all just lip service and promises of something completely undeliverable unless more, and I mean alot more midwives are employed?
I notice there's no mention of how he's going to acheive this.

I admit I have not read the whole thread but YABU to think Andrew Lansley is a tosser because he is clearly insane. Not political bias, just a good knowledge of his incredible plans for our NHS.

YANBU - Andrew 'numpty' Lansley IS a stupid tosser & i would not put him in charge of a pan of baked beans - let alone the NHS.
If Andrew Lansley would prefer private healthcare (well, he IS busy privatising the NHS!) then i suggest he moves to another country far far away & stays there. For ever. He is welcome to take his buddies George Osborne, Iain Duncan Smith & David Cameron with him.

In fact there are other politicians who could also join them but i can't think of their names right now.

YANBU - he is destroying the NHS and getting away with it.

To quote a well respected NHS commentator earlier this week...

"He is probably the worst secretary of state I have encountered. Next to Patricia Hewett the worst communicator. He has no sensitivity, emotional intelligence, nothing that marks him out as a leader. He is locked in a windowless world we can't see into and he cannot describe."

That sums him up pretty well.

I think he is restating the policies established under the Labour government (who closed one of my local maternity units).

The aims are worthy, but the changes/cuts to maternity services are exactly the same as some of us have been experiencing over a decade or so now.

If you have lived in an area which did not have health reorganisation and hospital closures (and maternity service "rationalisation") under the previous government, you were lucky.

I didn't mean to say that cuts are not deplorable: but could I just remind everyone that they are not destroying some sort of "golden age", or even a preceding age of competence. Here's a reminder (with quotations from RCM) of what it was like in 2009.

Labour closes maternity services increasing, say Conservatives with nearly 50 per cent of hospital trusts having to close to maternity admissions at least once in 2008. The Conservatives, who collated the figures from freedom of information requests, said they demonstrated Labour?s ?terrible record on maternity?.

Fifty of 104 trusts that replied to the requests said they had closed to admissions or diverted women elsewhere at least once during the year.

In a similar survey of 83 trusts for 2007, 42 per cent said they had to close at least once.

In total, there were 553 closures in England in 2008, up 38 per cent from 402 in 2007, the Conservatives said.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: ?These figures are a telling reminder of Labour?s terrible record on maternity.

?Every one of these figures tells an awful story of mothers being turned away from hospital at a hugely emotional time ? when they are due to give birth. Labour seem to be deliberately running down maternity services in some hospitals as a precursor to shutting down maternity units altogether.?

?The labour government must increase midwife numbers as they promised, make sure local maternity units get their fair share of NHS funding, and sort out their disastrous negotiation of EU rules on doctors? working hours.?

In 2007, the government committed to improving the safety of maternity services, including by appointing 1,000 midwives by September and ?up to 4,000″ by 2012. Last January it said an additional £330m funding would go to primary care trusts for maternity over three years.

However, a large proportion of primary care trusts are not earmarking the money for maternity, meaning it may not reach services.

Royal College of Midwives director for England Jacque Gerrard said: ?Capacity within maternity units is being stretched to the limit and beyond, resulting in closures.

?The Department of Health, however, has set a target to recruit the equivalent of another 3,400 full time midwives by 2012, and it has started to increase the money going into maternity care.

?Some of this money, however, is not finding its way into the hands of the people at the front line to employ more midwives and improve maternity services.

?The Royal College of Midwives is urging people who run health services locally to be more proactive and use money earmarked for maternity services actually for maternity services, so that women are not being left worried and deeply disappointed.?

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: ?Sometimes units do have to temporarily shut their doors, usually for very short periods of time.

?We appreciate that it is distressing to be told that your care is going to be provided elsewhere but this is always undertaken in the interests of safety for the mother and baby".

Now, do the posters here know the answer to the important questions: have the number if midwives cut by Labour been restored, or are we having to bump along at the lower level they produced? And are women being turned away from their local units as often as was, shockingly, the case then?

hmmm wondes who will be paying for outaged's pension and health care when she needs it.. ahh yes all those babies who have grown up and are paying NI and taxes.

I don't get all the fuss about having a named midwife and one to one care. I saw a small team for ante-natal visits. The ones who did deliver me (and there was a change of shift on one occasion) were all excellent and I'd met none of them prior to the birth. How does it work if your named midwife happens to be on holiday when you go into labour?

I was turned away from my local maternity unit 4 weeks ago as it was full. Happens quite frequently, in fact we're forewarned about it in ante natal classes.

It did upset me, for about 15 minutes whilst, in between contractions, DH and I talked about it and came to the conclusion there was nothing we could do and googled directions. Turns out it was a fantastic experience. That night, the unit I should have went to, was full. Each midwife had 4 mums labouring to look after. People were discharged within hours whether the liked it or not to make room for more people. I've spoke to 3 mums who delivered over that weekend, it sounded hellish. I gave birth there 6 years ago on a relativly quiet night and even then my midwife was dashing between me and another mum.

The unit I got redirected to was so quiet it was amazing. I got there 30 minutes before shift change, one midwife checked me over, started filling the pool and explained she was going to handover and a new midwife would be with me. She came in and only had me to look after. She was by my side throughout, helped me in the shower after, ate lunch with me, took me up to the ward and got me settled in. She was so lovely my DH bought her some flowers and chocolates after. My birth was straight forward, so that probably helped colour my experience, but I have no doubt having the same midwife throughout made it all the better.

The hospital that was too full had a new birthing unit open at the start of this year and they still don't have the capacity to deal with the births in the area.

Scholes I don't think they are talking about your community midwife delivering you. I think they mean the same midwife for all your ante natal care then one on one care through delivery.

Here we do get one named midwife throughout. Obviously the community team don't work in the hospitals so you don't know who will be helping with delivery until you get there, which is fair enough, but I think you should have the same midwife throughout a labour - shift changes permitting.

I had a couple during my first delivery. The first midwife was fantastic, the second one that came in was awful. I was doubled over the bed pushing and she was like 'hmmm I'm not sure you should be pushing' leaving me a bit and unsure how to stop pushing!

The thing is, much as it would be nice to see one face throughout your entire labour, I was in hospital labouring for 24 hours before DD popped out. I was actually glad to have a shift change in the middle of labour as I wanted a fresh, awake midwife on hand, not necessarily the same one.

Safety wise, surely Midwives need to end their shifts at a reasonable time?

Yeah I don't think anyone is suggesting midwives work for 20 plus hours to be by your side. As far as possible I do think it's reasonable to expect one midwife, the same one, throughout (until shift change).

I'm all for an increase in midwifery numbers - but to be effective those student midwives need to be able to get a job and the maternity units need to be big enough to provide the level of care .

Scenario on post natal - beginning of the day shift ward was full and labour ward needed beds - do I prioritise the women who want to go home - even though I have several women who are in pain and need care following their sections, oh and no support worker so as these women can't help their babies at the moment - so I need to ensure the babies are fed, changed cared for etc, and try and do drugs round etc. If I do get some women discharged - their beds will be immediately filled with women who have just had their elective sections etc etc - or do I leave the discharges (who are essentially well and self caring) and concentrate on the women who need my care - even though the managers are stalking the wards - looking for women they expect me (not them note) to discharge, and all this time beds are blocked in labour ward by women who need to be on post natal ward but can't because of no beds.

However birth is unpredictable - I have known (albeit very rare) some very quiet days on labour ward. This causes difficulties for health planners, whilst they may know a particular unit has average of 6000 births a year - so plan facilities and staffing to accommodate this - however this does not evenly spread. 6000 births implies 16.4 births a day - however some days we will have less than this - and other days we will have substantially more.

Another one here who has not read the thread - I don't need to! I already know Andrew Landsley is a tosser.

He is trying to reduce/part privatise the NHS. None of his idiotic plans surprise me.

Sounds great! When does the increased funding for it come through?

OH WAIT

Hospitals seem chronically understaffed, whatever the ward.

Married do sorry about your baby, how awful for u all.

As a trained nurse in the 80s I can categorically state that it's not to do with funding or numbers ITS TRAINING.

We had often 4 members of staff, 2 trained and 2 students to look after a 36 bed surgical ward with often 10 post ops.

We coped, no one got a bed sore, noone died if thirst and ward was CLEAN.

Nurses trained IN HOSPITAL not uni so learned the basics of nursing care.

You don't need one to one care in labour, you need a midwife who is well qualified and empathetic, labour can take hours and it's ridiculous to expect a midwife to hang around, most women have birth partner for that.

We need more nursey nurses in post to help new moms and enough midwives to cope ratio of 1 to 3 labouring moms.

Bring back ward cleaners who had a sense of pride, proper auxiliary nurses who usually knew as much as trained nurses and had loads of experience and stop fucking around the edges with nursing.

Just to add I have been into hospital recently and it was filthy, my locker was covered in blood!! Bathroom and toilets disgusting.

I can tell you that in the 80s a student nurse would have been bawled out if her patients locker was like this.

Basic care starts with the little things, feeding, washing, cleaning, turning patients, mouth care, empathy, if these are seen as important then patients don't get infections, mistakes arnt made and care us good.

Sorry for rant.

I've met him, and he came across as quite seriously dim. So you are at least half right, OP.

I know this has been linked before, but for anyone who hasn't seen the AL rap...

Yay, thanks, Sarky. I honestly can't ever see the words 'Andrew Lansley' without mentally adding the Tosser! suffix.

I remember being on a labour ward with my first child. I started bleeding and I could not see a midwife anywhere. I found a group of them in an office. I explained my problem to which the response was "what are you doing on this ward?" I had to tell them that I was in labour and had been sent to the ward. FFS!

What PullUpAPew said x 100

I just found this on another thread
baby dies in waiting room birth
So sad. The NHS can't provide even safe care for everyone, let alone 1 to 1 care!

I haven't read anything here, but yes, he is a Tosser.