asked the Minister for Health whether in view of the decrease in the number of home confinements he will make arrangements for dispensary midwives to be given alternative nursing employment in addition to their present work, as they have little hope in many districts of earning more than £235 per annum.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Alternative Nursing Employment for Midwives.
5.
Dispensary midwives are part time officers on a salary scale of £215 to £235 per annum. Their position was considered by my Department in conjunction with the scheme for the integration and reorganisation of health authority outdoor nursing and domiciliary midwifery services, consequent on the extension in 1956 of the classes eligible for Maternity and Child Health Services under the Health Acts.
It was suggested to health authorities in a circular which issued from my Department in 1956, that they should fill, where possible, posts of Public Health Nurse by the appointment of suitably qualified dispensary midwives. It was also suggested to the health authorities that they should investigate the possibility of employing suitable dispensary midwives, either in a whole-time or in a part-time capacity in the maternity sections of local authority hospitals.
A number of dispensary midwives have been appointed to posts of Public Health Nurse, and some further proposals in this connection are under consideration in my Department.
It was found on investigation some time ago that in many areas the number of cases attended by the dispensary midwife on behalf of the local authority was so small as to render her employment uneconomic. The health authorities were recommended to consider the retirement of dispensary midwives who are called on for fewer than 25 cases a year.
On the basis of 25 cases a midwife receives £9 8s. per case, for her annual salary of £235. It was recognised, however that the strict application of this criterion might cause undue hardship in individual cases. To meet this, the suggestions regarding the alternative employment of the midwives, referred to earlier in my reply, were made to the health authorities and it was also recommended that the midwives affected who could not be employed in an alternative capacity might be given additional duties which would make it possible to justify their retention. I understand that no dispensary midwife has been compulsorily retired by a health authority on the grounds that the number of cases dealt with fell below 25 per year.
I appreciate that in many districts dispensary midwives find it difficult to earn more than their part-time salary of £235 per annum but I consider that their case has been dealt with very sympathetically in the reorganisation of the nursing services and it is difficult to see how the dispensary midwives could be given alternative nursing employment, otherwise than as already recommended to health authorities, which justify an increase in their salary.