A mini-civil war appears to have broken out in the ranks of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) over claims by Lorna Tinsley, National Officer for the Royal College of Midwives UK Board for Wales, that immigration is the cause of a sharp increase in pressure on NHS maternity services.
A statement released by the RCM’s General Secretary Professor Cathy Warwick attacked the British National Party for reporting Ms Tinsley’s claims about immigration and birth rates. The RCM statement said, “Responding to the suggestion on the website of the British National Party (BNP) that the Royal College of Midwives blames immigration for the pressures facing NHS maternity services, RCM General Secretary Professor Cathy Warwick said: ‘Let me spell it out simply and clearly. The Royal College of Midwives rejects absolutely the BNP’s assertion that immigration is a problem. It is not.’”Ms Warwick’s claims are directly contradictory to the remarks made by Ms Tinsley, as reported on this website and other media sources, that increased immigration was indeed the cause of problems within the NHS maternity care service.
According to Ms Tinsley, who is based in Cardiff and who was closely involved with the creation of a £2m business plan to increase the number of midwives in Wales, the rising birth rate affecting NHS services is directly attributable to immigration.
“This is all because the birth rate is going up and has been for the past three years,” Ms Tinsley was quoted as saying. “This is caused by increasing immigration to Wales, the larger number of referrals to UHW for those with maternity problems and the increasing immigration to the UK by those from Eastern Europe, many of whom have greater needs for maternity services.