Midwives 'dangerously overworked', says former Kent NHS worker

Piroska Cavell worried daily that her registration was at risk because of mistakes made outside of her control

A former midwife says being "dangerously overworked" and a lack of resources and staff put patient safety at risk.

Piroska Cavell, 55, from Whitstable in Kent, said the pressures in midwifery were "incredibly worrying".

Ms Cavell added that differing working protocols in different trust areas made working difficult.

The Department for Health and Social Care said it was aiming to hire 1,200 more midwives.

Ms Cavell worked as a midwife at trusts across the South East but left the NHS in 2019 to set up her own personal health business.

She said she had worried daily when working in the NHS that her registration could be at risk because of "something out of [her] control".

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"It's the pressure of working in environments where the resources are lacking, so the pressure is on you to make sure your patients are safe. The whole time.

"You know there aren't enough of you potentially to cover everybody that's coming in. You might be drawn between several situations that are not great," Ms Cavell added.

In November parents, health workers and midwives across the UK protested against a staffing and safety crisis.

Midwives in Maidstone joined marches across the UK in November over staff and equipment shortages

Abbie Alpin from the Royal College of Midwives said: "The level of care they [midwives] are trying to give, it's not what they want because they are not able to do what [they] want. The stress on them for that is immense."

In a statement released in November, the Department of Health and Social Care said that "the mental health and wellbeing of staff remains a key priority and the NHS continues to offer a broad range of support".

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