[A] CAMPAIGN has been launched to attract midwives to work in Cumbria’s newest state-of-the-art maternity unit.
The £12m unit at Furness General Hospital (FGH) in Barrow will be officially opened this week. It’s been hailed as a major step forward in birthing provision and now a drive is under way to add to the established midwife team.
Health chiefs say the South Lakes Birth Centre will provide compassionate, high quality and safe maternity services to women and their families. They’re looking to attract both experienced and newly-qualified midwives with the right skills.
The new development has vacancies for Band 5 and Band 6 midwives who are keen to progress their careers.
Katy Stretch, who is heading up the recruitment drive for University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT), said there were exciting opportunities to join a committed team.
She said: “We have really transformed the service from being in special measures to where we are now. We have people from within the NHS coming to us to find out how we do things.
“We have engaged both the local community and our staff in what services they want to see. Without them we wouldn’t have the amazing facilities we do today.”
The unit boasts 14 en-suite birthing rooms with facilities for partners to stay over, two dedicated operating theatres, a special care baby unit, a maternity assessment area, a transitional care facility, a skills lab for staff training, and a bereavement suite.
As part of their orientation in the unit, maternity staff have been using the skills lab’s hi-tec ‘Sim Mum’. This simulates labour to enable staff to experience emergency and complicated births.
The trust is also recruiting for midwives for the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI) for both immediate posts and the long term and is keen to encourage midwives wishing to rotate between the two sites. The RLI supports 2,100 births per year, FGH 1,100.
Katy said: ‘’They’d be joining an amazing team committed to ongoing learning and development. They deliver high quality care and embrace positive change to meet the demands of the community we serve.
“We really can offer the best of all worlds in both locations. Right on the doorstep we have some of the UK’s most beautiful countryside, the coast and also the facilities you’d associate with bustling urban areas.”
