Overview
- The Nursing and Midwifery Council said on Wednesday that a staff whistleblower prompted a review which found its 12-year process lapse could mean up to 15 registrants were allowed to practise when they should have been removed.
- The NMC has deployed paralegals to assess 18,060 historic applications, identified 421 cases for re-examination and is contacting those registrants for further information to help assistant registrars decide on referrals.
- If referred, the cases will go to fitness-to-practise hearings where independent panels can remove nurses or midwives from the register and bar them from patient care.
- Unions and the Royal College of Nursing have condemned the regulator and are calling for a fully independent inquiry, citing earlier findings of a toxic culture and leadership failings at the NMC.
- The Professional Standards Authority found the NMC met just nine of 18 regulatory standards in 2024–25, leaving external watchdogs unconvinced that reforms so far amount to sustained improvement.