Unite concern over delays caused by new review of NMC
26 January 2012
Unite, the largest union in the country, has expressed concern
about the continuing delay into how the Nursery and Midwifery
Council (NMC) regulates the nursing professions and provides
protection to the public.
The government has today (Thursday 26 January) ordered a
strategic review of the NMC.
Unite, which represents health visitors, community nurses,
mental health nurses and sexual health advisers, has long called
for changes to the third part of the register to ensure better
regulation for nurses and midwives who work in public health
nursing, ensuring that the public is protected.
The public needs to be assured that the health professional
carrying out ‘health visitor’ roles has the required qualifications
that health visitors train for.
Unite national officer for health, Barrie Brown, said: ”We are
concerned that in having this high level review, there will be more
delay in sorting out the NMC’s regulatory role. Our members, who
are NMC registrants, have already waited a long time for the review
of the third part of the register.
”We had the very welcome announcement at the Unite/Community
Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association (CPHVA) conference
last October that this would happen, starting this year - and we
have started the early negotiations on this with the NMC.
”To now have the possibility that it will be kicked into the
long grass, after the now departed NMC chief executive Professor
Dickon Weir-Hughes agreed that the third part was a mess and it
needed to be sorted out, is extremely concerning.
”At a time when nurses and midwives face employers cutting the
number of frontline practitioners, they need to be able to rely on
a strong regulator. This need is heightened by the Health and
Social Care bill which will herald a deluge of private providers
into the NHS – and this is a huge concern.
”We have seen the effect when nurses have not been able to raise
concerns locally and this results in patient deaths, as the Mid
Staffordshire scandal revealed.
”Unite welcomes the review if it is quick and thorough, and
results in nurses and midwives having a regulator that is on their
side when they are fighting for better and safer services for their
patients and clients against corporate bodies.
”The bottom line is that the public needs – and deserves – a
strong NMC to regulate the nursing professions – and that the high
standards that the NHS is known for across the world are maintained
and improved.”
ENDS
Notes for news editors:
For further information please contact Unite professional
officer Dave Munday on 07918 630 700; and/or Unite communications
officer Shaun Noble on 07768 693 940.
Unite’s health sector includes the CPHVA, the Mental Health
Nurses Association and the Society of Sexual Health Advisers.
