Annual accountability hearing with the Nursing and Midwifery Council

Download or read book Annual accountability hearing with the Nursing and Midwifery Council written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Health Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-07-26 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Health Committee reports on the annual accountability hearings with the General Medical Council (GMC) (HC 1429) and Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (HC 1428). The reports call for doctors and nurses to develop a wider responsibility for the overall quality of care delivered to patients and they have an obligation as professionals to report to their professional body any concerns they have about the quality of care being delivered by their colleagues. The GMC and the NMC must give a strong lead in this area and ensure that failure to act on this responsibility is regarded as a serious breach of professional obligation. The Committee stresses that both regulators need to have effective revalidation processes in place so that they can periodically check on how doctors and nurses are performing. The Committee recognises that the NMC is making steady progress towards being an effective regulator but cautions that there remains substantial ground to cover before it can be considered fully effective: work around pro-active regulation (risk-based visits) must be expanded; guidance about the care of older people must be reinforced by an action plan to deliver improved outcomes in this group. Government and both regulators must speed up efforts to resolve the serious problems posed by doctors and nurses who qualify elsewhere in Europe, and earn the right to work in the UK without having their language or medical skills tested. The UK and European law that underpins the workings of both regulators needs a complete overhaul.