The chief executive of the NHS has admitted that the country is short of 4,500 midwives.

David Nicholson rejected claims that the NHS is in crisis, but conceded that the Government`s planning of midwifery services had not been "quite as it should have been".

He insisted the Government was working through plans to increase numbers, but told MPs that no conclusion had yet been reached on how to end the shortage.

Mr Nicholson told the Commons Public Accounts Committee "Over the last three or four years it has become clear as we have revised figures on the birth rate that our planning for midwifery services has not been as it should have been."

He said: "We launched a campaign to train the 4,500 midwives (needed)."

Conservative MP Richard Bacon said the picture in some parts of the country was of a service in crisis.

"I don`t accept it`s in crisis," Mr Nicholson said, but added: "In some places they are really pressed."

Mr Nicholson said his number for the shortage of midwives was 4,500, adding that "you can`t just turn midwives on and off".

Asked what the Government was doing about recruiting and retaining more midwives, Mr Nicholson said: "I think we are working through what that means at the moment.

"I don`t think we have concluded how we can do it.

"We are working through that at the moment."

Mr Nicholson said the NHS tariff for midwifery services had increased significantly above inflation to give hospitals the resources they needed to recruit.

In 1997, there were just over 608,000 births in England but this had risen to 671,000 by 2009.

The number of midwives working the equivalent of full time has gone from around 18,000 in 1997 to just over 20,000 in 2009.

Copyright ⌐ Press Association 2011