NMC Commends Healthcare Commission's Maternity Services Review, UK

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 28 Jan 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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The NMC has commended the results of the Healthcare Commission's Maternity Services Review released recently, which reflects the high quality of care provided by midwives.

Find out more from the Healthcare Commission website.

NMC Director of Standards and Registrations, Kathy George said:

"The UK is already recognised as providing world-class maternity services and this report provides further evidence that this continues to be the case. The report will enable all trusts to promote their individual areas of excellence and will equally enable them to allocate resources to the areas that need improving.

"As the regulator responsible for setting the standards for nursing and midwifery training and education in the UK, this report is a testament to the high quality of care being provided by midwives on a day to day basis and often in very difficult circumstances which is also reflected in the individual ratings for each trust.

"It is important to recognise that although some trusts, particularly those located in London received the lowest rating, all provided a level of care that was considered safe. A Memorandum of Understanding exists between the NMC and the Commission to share information and work together to create a more joined-up approach to the regulation of healthcare services in order to ensure the provision of healthcare continues to be safe and effective while at the same time working with trusts to help them identify where they need to improve their services.

"However I would also like to highlight that the NMC exists to protect the public and in so doing we would encourage anyone who has concerns about the conduct or competence of an individual nurse or midwife to report their concerns to the NMC Fitness to Practise department."

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the UK regulator for two professions, nursing and midwifery. The primary purpose of the NMC is protection of the public. It does this through maintaining a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses eligible to practise within the UK and by setting standards for their education, training and conduct. Currently the number of registrants exceeds 682,000. The Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001 (The Order), sets out the NMC's role and responsibilities.

Each UK midwife is assigned a named Supervisor of Midwives who they meet with annually to reflect on their area of practise and identify any performance issues or training requirements. The Local Supervising Authority reports direct to the NMC and each trust is audited annually with respect to its supervisory function.

Nursing and Midwifery Council