The Nursing and Midwifery Council failed to assess health and character declarations for 12 years, allowing potentially unfit nurses and midwives to continue practicing. The regulator has apologized and is now reviewing thousands of applications, with up to 15 practitioners expected to be removed. The nursing union demands an independent investigation, citing a dangerous breach of public trust.
A major regulatory failure at the Nursing and Midwifery Council ( NMC ) has allowed more than a dozen nurses and midwives, who should have been banned from treating patients, to continue working for over a decade.
The issue came to light in February when a staff member raised concerns, prompting an internal review that revealed a systemic breakdown: for 12 years, applications containing health or character declarations were not consistently referred to an assistant registrar for proper assessment. This means individuals with potentially disqualifying issues, such as criminal convictions or serious health conditions, were neither properly investigated nor removed from the register.
The NMC, which maintains a register of over 860,000 nursing and midwifery professionals, has now apologized, with Chief Executive Paul Rees calling the failure 'completely and utterly unacceptable.
' Since February, a team of paralegals has been reviewing more than 18,000 applications from that period and is contacting over 400 nurses and midwives for additional information to complete the long-overdue assessments. The council expects that up to 15 practitioners will now be removed from the register following the review.
However, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has criticized the apology as insufficient, with Chief Nursing Officer Professor Lynn Woolsey stating it is a 'potentially dangerous regulatory failing' and demanding an independent investigation. The scandal adds to a catalogue of problems at the NMC, which was the subject of an Independent Culture Review in July 2024 that highlighted bullying, harassment, racism, and systemic failures within the organization.
The union argues that a vague apology does not address the profound breach of public trust and the potential risk to patient safety. The NMC now faces intense scrutiny to not only complete the pending reviews but also to overhaul its internal processes to prevent such a catastrophic lapse from happening again.
The incident raises serious questions about the regulator's ability to safeguard the public and ensure that only fit and proper practitioners are allowed to work in the NHS and private care settings
NMC Nursing And Midwifery Council Regulatory Failure Patient Safety Health Declarations Character Declarations Assistant Registrar Royal College Of Nursing RCN Independent Culture Review Bullying Harassment Racism Systemic Failure Register Fitness To Practise Unfit Practitioners NHS Care Settings
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