Health Services and Public Health Act 1968

10 Midwifery services

(1) It shall be the duty of every local health authority to secure, whether by making arrangements with Boards of Governors of teaching hospitals, Hospital Management Committees or voluntary organisations for the employment by those Boards, Committees or organisations of certified midwives or by themselves employing such midwives, that the number of such midwives so employed who are available in the authority's area for attendance on women in their homes as midwives is adequate for the needs of the area and that the midwives so available as aforesaid are enabled to render all services reasonably necessary for the proper care of the women upon whom they so attend.

(2) A local health authority may make provision in their area in manner aforesaid for the attendance on women, elsewhere than in their homes or in hospitals vested in the Minister, as midwives of certified midwives so employed.

(3) A local health authority may make arrangements with a Hospital Management Committee exercising functions with respect to the management and control of a hospital or with a Board of Governors exercising functions with respect to the administration of a teaching hospital for there to be made available in the hospital, on such terms and conditions as may be agreed, the services of certified midwives employed by the authority for the purposes of either of the two foregoing subsections and may make arrangements with another local health authority for there to be made available in that other authority's area, on such terms and conditions as may be agreed, the services of such midwives as aforesaid.

(4) For the purposes of this section a woman named in an order having effect by virtue of section 6 of the [1953 c. 47.] Emergency Laws (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1953 (exemption of certain women from [1951 c. 53.] Midwives Act 1951) shall, while the order is in force with respect to her, be deemed to be a certified midwife.

(5) Section 20 of the 1946 Act (submission to the Minister by local health authorities of proposals for carrying out their duties under sections 21 to 28 of that Act) shall have effect as if any reference to those duties included a reference to the duty of local health authorities under this section.

(6) This section shall have effect in place of section 23 of the 1946 Act and, so far as concerns arrangements for making the services of midwives available in hospitals, in place of section 29 of the [1964 c. xxxv.] Newcastle upon Tyne Corporation Act 1964, and accordingly—

(a) any arrangements made under the first-mentioned section by a local health authority which are in force immediately before the coming into operation of this section shall, so far as they could be made under subsection (1) above, have effect as if so made, and the submission under section 20 of the 1946 Act of proposals for carrying out the duty of the local health authority under this section by means of those arrangements shall not be requisite ;

(b) any proposals submitted by a local health authority under the said section 20 for carrying out their duties under the said section 23 which are pending at the date of the coming into operation of this section, and any notice served or recommendation made before that date under subsection (2) of the said section 20 in relation to those proposals shall be treated as if they were respectively proposals submitted for carrying out the duty of the local health authority under this section and a notice served or recommendation made in relation to proposals so submitted;

(c) any arrangements made under the said section 29 by the Corporation of Newcastle upon Tyne which are in force immediately before the coming into operation of this section shall, so far as they could be made under subsection (3) above, have effect as if so made.

(7) This section shall have effect in Scotland in place of section 23 of the 1947 Act, as if—

(a) in subsections (1) and (3) thereof, for any reference to a Hospital Management Committee, there were substituted a reference to a Regional Hospital Board, and any reference to a teaching hospital, or to the Board of Governors of any such hospital, were omitted;

(b) in subsection (5) thereof, for the references to section 20 and sections 21 to 28 of the 1946 Act, there were substituted references respectively to section 21 and sections 22 to 27 of the 1947 Act; and

(c) subsections (4) and (6) thereof were omitted ;

and for transitional purposes the following provisions shall have effect:—

(i) any arrangements made under section 23 of the 1947 Act by a local health authority which are in force immediately before the coming into operation of this section shall, so far as they could be made under subsection (1) above, have effect as if so made, and the submission under section 21 of the 1947 Act of proposals for carrying out the duty of the local health authority under this section by means of those arrangements shall not be requisite ;

(ii) any proposals submitted by a local health authority under the said section 21 for carrying out their duties under the said section 23 which are pending at the date of the coming into operation of this section, and any notice served or recommendation made before that date under subsection (2) of the said section 21 in relation to those proposals shall be treated as if they were respectively proposals submitted for carrying out the duty of the local health authority under this section and a notice served or recommendation made in relation to proposals so submitted.