HSC succeeds in recruiting new midwives

The UK is estimated to have as a shortage of about 2,500 midwives, with some trusts having more than one in five midwife positions left vacant.

Guernsey is currently advertising for a band six midwife, as well as a band six senior neonatal staff nurse.

Band six staff are specialist or senior staff.

A Health & Social Care spokesman said the island did not currently have any midwife recruitment challenges.

‘We have successfully recruited to all of our recent midwifery vacancies and are being supported with agency staff while awaiting start dates for those new staff,’ he said.

HSC is also looking to the future to ensure there were midwifery staff for the future.

‘We have had discussions in recent years with Bournemouth University about their midwifery students having some Guernsey placements and are hoping to progress those discussions during the next couple of years,’ the spokesman said.

‘We are hopeful that this, if it comes to fruition, would further encourage islanders to consider a midwifery career.

We have also recently been successful in recruiting to our neonatal posts, which staff our Special Care Unit, and staffing in that area is better than it has been in the last few years.’

HSC would not confirm how many midwife or neonatal staff it employed or what was done to encourage people to work in the local sector.

It is also unclear if there have been fewer staff now employed in the sector, as the island’s birth rate drops.

A Guernsey midwife job has a suggested wage of between £43,954 and £52,932, with the option of relocation expenses for those moving the island.

This could include interview travel costs, a £5,000 one-off payment for moving costs, and a rent allowance of up to £260 a week over four years.

A UK band six midwife varies from £35,000 to £39,000 according to one nursing recruitment site.