asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will seek now to alter the situation whereby a nurse seeking to qualify as a midwife takes a drop in salary to do so.
This is a matter for the Nurses and Midwives Whitley Council. The majority of qualified nurses taking up midwifery training do not take a drop in salary as the training allowance is the equivalent of the correct salary point on the basic grade appropriate to their qualifications. The exceptions are a small number of more senior nursing staff, who take up midwifery training later in their career but are not seconded by their employing authority.
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services why midwives are paid less for overtime and bank holiday work than the national average for women in industry.
The Nurses and Midwives Whitley Council's agreements provide for payment to all nurses and midwives of enhanced rates for overtime, or work at nights and week-ends or on bank holidays. The rate for Sundays and bank holidays within the working week has been improved from 1st April 1978. I do not have details of rates of enhancement paid to women in industry.
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services why the staff midwives at the Birmingham Maternity Hospital work a 45-hour week when the national average working week for nurses is 39ยท6 hours.
As the workload demands some but not all of the midwives at this hospital work more than the normal 40-hour week and are compensated either by overtime payments or time off in lieu. The combined total of recorded additional hours worked by all the midwives at the hospital averaged about four hours a week during March and April of this year.
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the reasons for the shortage of midwives at the Birmingham Maternity Hospital, and one 20-bed ward not being used.
I am aware that staffing levels at this hospital are giving cause for concern. A report on these levels is being prepared by senior nursing management. It is likely that this report will be considered as part of the detailed study of its obstetric services which the Area Health Authority (Teaching) has now decided will take place. It will be for the authority to decide whether, in the light of other competing demands on their financial resources, additional revenue can be allocated for the recruitment of more midwives. At present a 20-bedded ward is unused so that existing midwifery staff can be more effectively deployed on fewer beds.