Nurses and midwives who should have been banned from treating patients have practised over the last 12 years because of “potentially dangerous” failings by a medical regulator.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has admitted that its “completely and utterly unacceptable” mistakes meant it failed to protect the public from about 15 professionals whom it should have banned from ever working in healthcare in the UK because they had broken the law.
The nurses and midwives told the NMC about their criminal convictions when they applied to join or stay on the regulator’s register, which they need to be on in order to practise in Britain. However, NMC staff who assessed their applications did not then refer them on to an assistant registrar at the regulator to investigate and decide if they could treat patients, which they should have done.
The 15 or so nurses and midwives involved now face being struck off because their law-breaking is so serious that they should not be allowed to keep having contact with patients.
The Patients Association warned that the NMC’s failure to properly look into the background of those concerned undermines patients’ trust that health staff are safe to care for them.
The Royal College of Nursing accused the regulator of an “astounding failure of its primary purpose to safeguard the public, as well as to provide assurance to the nursing workforce that they and their colleagues had all undergone the necessary checks to practise”.
Prof Lynn Woolsey, the union’s chief nursing officer, added: “The NMC must ensure all those practising as registered nurses are safe to do so at the point of registration and throughout their careers. It is a potentially dangerous regulatory failing that individuals made appropriate declarations regarding criminal convictions and/or health conditions over such a long period of time without appropriate checks to determine their fitness to practise.”
The NMC acknowledged that its failure to properly look into “health and character concerns” nurses and midwives had disclosed to it constituted a major error and apologised.
Under NMC rules, any nurse, midwife or nursing assistant seeking to join or remain on the register has to declare any criminal charges laid against them, or police cautions, convictions or conditional discharges that may make them unfit to have contact with patients, or any medical condition that may impair their ability to do so.
However, the regulator conceded that it had failed to properly risk-assess a total of 434 individuals over the last 12 years. While most of those are thought unlikely to pose any risk to patients, it is recommending that as many as 15 of the 434 should be struck off.
“It is estimated that assistant registrars could make recommendations that up to 15 nursing and midwifery professionals should be removed from the nursing and midwifery register of 867,935,” it said.
The final decision on their fate will be made by independent disciplinary panels over the next few months, leaving the staff involved uncertain about their futures.
“I would like to apologise for the fact that for a period of 12 years we failed to ensure that all health and character declarations were assessed in line with our full process. This is completely and utterly unacceptable”, said Paul Rees, the NMC’s chief executive.
Rees became the regulator’s boss last year in the wake of an independent review in 2024 concluding that the organisation was beset by a range of problems including bullying, harassment, racism and failure of its systems.
Under his leadership, the NMC is promoting a “speak up culture” and encouraging staff to highlight areas in which it needs to do better. As a result of that, “a member of staff alerted us about this failure to follow the full process for assessing health and character concerns,” Rees said.
The regulator then hired a team of paralegals to assess if a total of 18,060 applications across the last 12 years had been properly handled. That revealed that 434 cases had not received scrutiny because they were not passed to an assistant registrar.
Of those 434 cases, 402 involved health professionals who had a criminal charge or conviction, caution or conditional discharge and the other 32 involved those with a health condition that could affect their ability to safely treat patients.
Woolsey demanded an independent investigation into why the NMC’s failings remained hidden for so long. “This is the latest in a catalogue of failings at the NMC and again calls into question whether it is fit for purpose as our profession’s regulator. Today’s vague apology will not suffice.
“The NMC must ensure all those practising as registered nurses are safe to do so at the point of registration and throughout their careers. It is a potentially dangerous regulatory failing that individuals made appropriate declarations regarding criminal convictions and/or health conditions over such a long period of time without appropriate checks to determine their fitness to practise.”
Rachel Power, the chief executive of the Patients Association, welcomed the NMC’s transparency but added: “Patients treated by individuals who never should have been on the register should not be left to wonder if they were impacted but deserve honest and direct communication.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Nurses and midwives play a vital role in our NHS and it’s essential that the public has confidence in the register, which is why we are supportive of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s new leadership addressing the historic issues it inherited.
“Under its new leadership, the NMC has been open with us about this historic past failure and we welcome their thorough response, which has included a rapid review of all affected cases.”
