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Nurse ordered to be struck off after refusing to take English test

Colleagues raised concerns that nurse’s poor English put patients at risk but she refused to take language test and insisted she had done nothing wrong
Brass name plate at entrance to NMC building

Colleagues raised concerns that nurse’s poor English put patients at risk but she refused to take language test and insisted she had done nothing wrong

Brass name plate at entrance to NMC building
Picture: Barney Newman

A nurse is to be struck off after refusing to take an English language test for four years.

Adult nurse Halina Sowinska was first suspended by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in July 2019 over concerns that her level of English could impair her fitness to practise.

Ms Sowinska, originally from Poland, was a registered nurse for 25 years before coming to the UK to work 13 years ago.

She was working at Bentley Court Nursing Home in Wolverhampton when she was referred to the NMC by colleagues following events on 11 November 2017, where she struggled to communicate with an ambulance call handler and paramedic when a resident became gravely ill.

Ms Sowinska received five consecutive suspension orders and will now be struck off on 1 May 2023 after a Fitness to Practise (FtP) panel said she continued to refuse to take an NMC approved English test ‘without good reason.’

Ms Sowinska told FtP panel she had a clear conscience and had done everything to the best of her abilities as a nurse

But Ms Sowinska argued that she had been subjected to discrimination and ‘humiliation’, and that she ‘had never had a problem before.’

The NMC hearing report from 22 March said Ms Sowinska had told the panel that if her English was so bad she would not have successfully obtained British citizenship, and that if she had done something wrong the NMC should have told her in 2017 when it began the investigation.

She said she had a clear conscience and believed she had done everything to the best of her abilities during her nursing career.

Since 2016 all nurses who are trained outside the UK must show they meet English language requirements when they apply to be on the NMC register, regardless of nationality.

Nurses and midwives who were already on the register when the changes were made, such as Ms Sowinska, were able to continue practising subject to concerns being raised.

In February 2023 changes were made to make it easier for overseas nurses to pass the English exams, with registrants able to submit evidence from their employer of combined test scores to pass.

Panel says striking off is the only sanction that protects the public and serves the wider public interest

It is unclear whether Mrs Sowinska had held an English qualification at the time of joining the register.

But the NMC panel found there was a risk that her ‘ongoing failures to cooperate’ and take an English language test could also be indicative of ‘a deep-seated attitudinal issue.’

The panel added: ‘This is amplified by your repeated failure to provide a reflective piece and your lack of demonstrating any insight into the impact on others of the concerns about your practice.’

It said Ms Sowinska had been given enough time to address the concerns raised, and it would no longer be in the public interest to issue another suspension.

It concluded: ‘The panel determined that it was now necessary to take action to prevent you from practising as a registered nurse in the future and concluded that the only sanction that both protects the public and serves the wider public interest was a striking-off order.’


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