Midwives working huge amount of unpaid extra hours – survey

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The Royal College of Midwives said a survey showed that during one week in March midwives and maternity support workers in England, Scotland and Wales worked 136,834 extra unpaid hours. The RCM said 97% of respondents in the northeast of England said they had worked additional hours unpaid that week, while 93% of members in London worked extra unpaid hours, describing the figures as “shocking”. RCM General Secretary Gill Walton said: “Across the country, maternity services are only being kept running because midwives and maternity support workers are working beyond their hours. “We’ve told the Government time and time again that improving pay is one of the crucial levers in retaining staff and right now given the staff retention issues facing the NHS they should be doing all they can to ensure staff are paid fairly.” Half of respondents said they worked up to five additional hours and over a quarter worked between five and 10 hours unpaid across the week of the survey.