‘Orwellian at times’: a look inside the nursing regulator
Review team leader recounts troubling details of what he found during a look behind the scenes at the Nursing and Midwifery Council
The ‘glacial pace’ of fitness to practise (FtP) investigations into nursing staff breaches human rights, says the review team that examined the running of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
A podcast with Nursing Standard heard how the FtP process lacked humanity and registrants were treated as numbers not people.
Staff were suffering from stress, depression and insomnia after experiencing bullying and racism
Following the publication of their damning report into the internal culture at the NMC, project manager Matt Baker from specialist consultancy Rise Associates spoke to senior reporter Alison Stacey about the most worrying and shocking aspects of their findings.
‘It did feel very Orwellian at times,’ he said. ‘And there were a number of processes that did not seem to be in keeping with what a modern 21st century organisation should have.’
He explained that he interviewed current and former staff members who were suffering from severe stress, depression and insomnia after experiencing bullying and racism and work.
NMC accepted recommendations, including commitment to reaching much swifter decisions in FtP cases
But Mr Baker, who also worked on the internal culture review at London Fire Brigade in 2022, praised the NMC for opening its doors for the investigation to be carried out, and said that nowhere was ‘off limits.’
He said the regulator had accepted the review’s recommendations, including a commitment to reaching much swifter decisions in FtP cases, getting the process right and reducing the backlog.
‘This has to be a watershed moment for them,’ he said.
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