NHS workforce figures issued last week showed the number of healthvisitors plunged to 9,376 in 2006. This is fewer than the previous10-year low of 9,809 recorded in 2005. The Community Practitioners' andHealth Visitors' Association said the loss showed the existing crisiswas getting worse.
A spokesman for the union said: "We calculate that health visitors onaverage make 15 visits a week to families, many of them vulnerable. Ifthe visits aren't happening, this will have a knock-on effect on childdevelopment, protection and assistance with postnatal depression."
Numbers of midwives also continued to fall, prompting the Royal Collegeof Midwives to warn that the recently launched plan for the future ofmaternity services, Maternity Matters, is already in jeopardy. Around3,000 more full-time midwives are needed to fulfil the blueprint'spledge to give women choice about where they give birth by 2009, saidthe college. But the figures showed numbers for full-time equivalentmidwives dropped by 87 between 2005 and 2006 to 18,862.
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