£1m investment will result in more midwives on wards

A total of £525,000 is to be spent on employing extra nurses for the medical wards, while £600,000 will go towards taking on more midwives, to help the hospital hit national targets for midwife-to-woman staffing ratios.

Ten midwives will be appointed by the end of this year, and another eight by 2013, to try and hit the target of one midwife to every 1.28 women.

Chief nurse at Barnsley Hospitals NHS Trust, Juliette Greenwood, said: “This investment in nurse and midwifery staffing levels is a very positive move for the hospital and our patients.

“Having the correct staffing levels and skill mix is vital to ensuring we deliver quality patient care and patient safety.”

Recruitment of the nurses – equivalent to almost 15 full-time posts – has already started and it is hoped they will join the hospital within the next three months.

Ms Greenwood added: “Our investment also represents the trust’s huge recognition of the value of our nursing staff and that without them we wouldn’t be able to deliver safe, quality care.”

She added that the recruitment of the midwives was “an important commitment by the trust and amounts to a further £600,000 investment.

“Our plan is to achieve a ratio of 1:30 by the end of this year, and thereafter a ratio of 1:28, which means we can improve the care we give to our patients”, she said.

A spokesman for the hospital trust said that Barnsley was having to make “significant savings and efficiency measures” to release the funds needed to enable the investment in nurse and midwifery staffing levels.

Ms Greenwood added: “We are making savings but at the same time investing for now and the future.

“We need a quality workforce to deliver the care we want for our patients, and we have learnt the lessons from other organisations in the NHS where not having the right staff with the right skills did not translate into the right outcomes for patients.”