The NHS is losing 29 midwives for every 30 trained, new figures show. The research comes as latest staff vacancy levels published by the NHS prompted warnings of a “national emergency”.

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said attempts to boost staff numbers had made little difference, because so many are leaving the NHS or taking retirement.

Its research shows that even though universities trained an extra 2,000 midwives in 2016/17, the total number rose by just 67, because so many workers left the service.

RCM chief executive Gill Walton said, “It is of deep concern that we’re only seeing an increase of about one NHS midwife for every 30 or so newly-qualified midwives graduating from our universities. The problem is that so many existing midwives are leaving the service that the two things almost cancel each other out.”

It came as official data published by watchdog NHS Improvement shows more than 107,743 NHS vacancies in England at the end of June, with one in eight nursing posts vacant.