New midwives ready to join maternity services at Royal Oldham and North Manchester General

Fay Read, newly qualified Midwife at The Royal Oldham Hospital

Maternity services at The Royal Oldham Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital have been strengthened by the recent recruitment of 31 new fully qualified midwives.

The new midwifery recruits, who started at the two maternity units in October, all have different levels of experience, from newly qualified midwives right up to experienced team leaders. All have been taken on to fill existing vacancies. Four of the new midwives are from overseas.

Last year midwives working across the Trust helped pregnant women to give birth to 9,785 babies. The Trust employs around 360 hospital and community midwives across the organisation.

In total, 16 of the new midwives recruited will work at The Royal Oldham Hospital and 15 will be based at North Manchester General Hospital.

Helen Howard, newly appointed Divisional Director of Midwifery at The Pennine Acute Trust, said: “I am delighted to welcome our new midwives to the organisation. Staffing has been a challenge for us and having new midwives is going to make a real difference to the service. I look forward to the new recruits being part of the future of our maternity services.”

Fay Read, a newly qualified midwife at the Trust, said: “I am thoroughly enjoying my new start as a midwife here at the Trust. I have felt well supported by my fellow new recruits, the existing midwives and the more senior staff since I began in October. I have enjoyed orientating to all the different clinical areas such as the birthing centre, community, labour ward, the antenatal, postnatal and labour wards.

“This is a highly rewarding job and I am enjoying every minute. I am looking forward to supporting the Trust and all the existing midwives in their plans to further improve maternity care at the Trust so that the women and new born babies we treat get the best care they possibly can do, on every occasion.”