Pregnant women are experiencing delays up to five days before induction due to a shortage of staff. This issue has been identified in ten hospitals, raising concerns about potential risks to both women and their babies, as reported by The Daily mail.
Inducing pregnant women is recommended when babies are overdue or when there are risks to both the mother and baby due to conditions like high blood pressure or insufficient fetal growth in the womb. Despite some women being categorised as ‘high risk’, a shortage of staff has resulted waits of up to five days before undergoing induction. Some women, after being induced, had to wait for more than 48 hours in the delivery suite for their transfer.
During a span of five months, the Care Quality Commission identified over 13,00 red flags at the University Hospitals of Leicester. These red flags were raised due to delays in labour inductions caused by a “shortage of staff”. Additionally, it was discovered that eight high-risk women at Blackpool Victoria Hospital were waiting for inductions for up to five days during a period of severe midwife shortage in the month of June.
The Health Service Journal spoke to Carolyn Jenkinson who is the deputy of secondary and specialist health care at the CQC. She said: “At some maternity services we’ve found women having to wait long periods of time to be induced or for transfer to a labour ward once the induction process has started, and in some cases a lack of effective monitoring during periods of delay. Where we have found concerns about delayed treatment – including induction of labour – we have made clear to those trusts that effective oversight of the issue is vital and that all action possible should be taken to mitigate any risk and keep people using the service safe.”
NHS Digital confirms that there has been a rise of 33 per cent in the percentage of births in 2021/22 in comparison to 22 percent in 2011/12. The executive director midwife from Royal College of Midwives, Birte Harlev-Lam stated: “Safety is paramount, so midwives should only induce labour when there is a midwife available to support the woman and a bed on the labour ward. Inevitably, with the well-known staffing and resource issues in maternity services, there may sometimes be a delay, which is why effective monitoring by midwives is so important”.
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