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NHS Staffing

I am sure that the Minister knows what I am about to ask my hon. Friend. There is a shortage of midwives in the national health service—a fact that is widely publicised by the Royal College of Midwives itself. There is also a shortage of student midwives. If the Government are to meet the guarantees in the midwifery matters strategy, the midwifery profession in the health service must be provided with more money, so that it can ensure safety in birth and the delivery of post-natal work.