Round table discussion on regulation
Advanced practice recognition is coming
NMC and Department of Health promise action
The Chief Executive of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Sarah Thewlis, gave a new commitment today to ensure advanced practice will be recognised on the register.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion on professional regulation, Thewlis assured delegates that the NMC was working hard to make progress on this issue.
'If you are prescribing and have your own list of patients, that is something that warrants being part of the register,' said Thewlis.
'We were pleased that there was recognition [of this] in the White Paper on regulation published in February of last year, and we are working hard to get this delivered.
'We are on the case,' she promised.
Gavin Larner, Director of Professional Regulation at the Department of Health, apologised to members for the delay in introducing recognition.
'We had to take a step back following the Foster report and I am sorry for that," said Gavin. 'However, we are now poised to move forward fairly quickly.'
Today's roundtable discussion on the future of regulation explored a wide range of issues including the involvement of patients and the general public in regulatory affairs, the values and standards which are shared by different professions, and the regulation of health care assistants.
On the panel were Sarah Thewlis, Gavin Larner, Paul Buckley, Director of Strategy for the General Medical Council (GMC), and David Pink, Chief Executive of the Long Term Conditions Alliance. The debate was chaired by Andrea Spyropoulos, Council Member for the North West region.