RCN: Improvements still needed in nursing regulation

Published: 06 July 2009

The Royal College of Nursing says there is still room for improvement in the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and has described waiting times for fitness to practice hearings as 'worrying'.

The comments come in response to the publication of the annual report from the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE).

RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, Dr Peter Carter acknowledges the significant improvements made by the NMC over the last year and welcomes much of the new guidance, including the reduction in waiting times for fitness to practise hearings but warns:

"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 practise 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 says it will continue to work closely with the NMC to ensure it can offer an efficient service to patients and nurses.