It has been reported that the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is currently facing a backlog of disciplinary cases for nurses and midwives. The NMC is in charge of registering and regulating the 670,000 nurses and midwives in the UK.
There is currently a backlog of 4,500 disciplinary cases. 1,400 of those cases have not yet had an interim hearing. The NMC says that it will take 2 years to deal with the backlog.
The NMC Chief Executive, Jackie Smith, told MPs on the health select committee that the timescale was “unacceptably long.” She was also reported as saying that the NMC was in the process of recruiting extra case managers and panellists so that it could increase the number of hearings for disciplinary cases that it was able to run.
However, it is not just the unacceptable backlog of disciplinary cases that is causing problems for the NMC. Earlier this year, an independent report by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence said the NMC was failing at “every level.”
The Health Committee Chairman, Stephen Dorrell, was reported as saying that to have a regulator in crisis when there is so much controversy about standards in the profession was particularly worrying for the public.
However, the Government has recently offered the NMC a one-off sum of £20 million to help it deal with the problems it currently faces. The NMC has also proposed a rise in registration fees for nurses and midwives of nearly 60% a year to help it raise funds to improve performance.
Following the Government’s offer to the NMC, Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter said:
“Following a period when we have heard so many terrible abuses in the care of older people and vulnerable patients, it is important that organisations like the NMC are in the right shape to properly perform their job of protecting patients.”
The NMC has not yet decided whether to accept the offer from the Government. A spokesperson for the NMC said:
“Patients must be able to have confidence in the quality of care they receive from nurses and midwives, and we share the Government’s commitment to improve nursing and midwifery regulation. The NMC’s Council has a responsibility to ensure that the organisation is adequately resourced for the future in order to deliver effective and efficient public protection. We welcome the Government’s offer of a grant to give us further options to contribute to the costs of regulating nurses and midwives. This will be discussed by our Council when it meets on 25 October.”
Comment
The role of the NMC in providing support to the UK’s nurses and midwives along with regulation of the profession is extremely important. The NMC clearly has a lot of work to do to resolve the many problems it currently faces and restore public confidence. It is promising to see reports that work is already underway to improve their performance. However, the estimated 2 year period until it is likely that their current backlog will be dealt with is worrying and it is vital that the NMC do everything possible to reduce this timescale even further.
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Danielle Young is an Associate in our Medical Negligence team.
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