RCN Responds To New Report Into Nursing Regulation

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 08 Jul 2009 - 3:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Responding to the annual report from the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE), Dr. Peter Carter, Chief Executive & General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said:

"This report demonstrates that the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has made some significant improvements over the last year. We welcome much of the new guidance and the reduction in waiting times for fitness to practice hearings. But the CHRE are also right to point to areas where the NMC still need to improve. Our members have raised serious concerns about the consistency and quality of some NMC judgements, and about the balance of the panels which judge nurses. The public must be assured that the people who make judgements about what constitutes acceptable practice have recent clinical experience themselves.

"It's also very worrying that a nurse can still wait over nine months for a fitness to practice hearing. This is not only disruptive for the individual, but it does nothing to increase public or professional confidence in the NMC as an efficient regulator. The RCN will continue to work closely with the NMC to make sure it can offer an efficient service to patients and nurses."

Source
Royal College of Nursing