NEWS

NMC fees increase moves closer after ministers fail to change law By Sally Gillen and Alistair Kleebauer The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has been dealt a ‘hugely disappointing’ blow after the government abandoned proposals to transform healthcare regulation. The regulator had hoped a bill to change healthcare regulation – which would have allowed the NMC to deal with costly fitness to practise (FtP) cases more swiftly – would be included in the Queen’s Speech last week. NMC chief executive Jackie Smith is calling on all political parties to enact the draft bill as a matter of urgency

in the next parliament. ‘Until these commitments are made we continue to be stuck with a framework that David Cameron described as “outdated and inflexible”. ‘The decision means there is no prospect of us meeting our long-term goal of concluding fitness to practise cases within 12 months.’ The Regulation of Healthcare Professionals Bill was published in April by the Law Commission, the body that reviews legislation. It would have created a single legal framework for eight of the nine UK health regulators. It would have given the NMC power

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A FUTURE NURSE OF THE YEAR?

NURSING STANDARD

Meet Pepper, the robot who could one day be programmed to provide nursing care. Standing at 1.2m tall, Pepper comes equipped with a cloudbased artificial intelligence system, or ‘emotional engine’, which allows it to recognise emotions by reading facial expressions, gestures and tone of voice. Pepper has been developed by Japanese company SoftBank and will go on sale in February 2015 for around £1,150. The Japanese government allocated £14 million in its budget in 2013 towards developing robots that could help monitor older people’s health and safety. Speaking at last week’s launch of the robot in Japan, SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son said the robot could one day be developed for other purposes, such as nursing care. ‘The most important role of robots will be as kind and emotional companions to enhance our daily lives, to bring happiness, constant surprise and make people grow,’ he added.

to deal with FtP cases without a full public hearing, which on average last 3.5 days and cost £3,500 per day. Under the bill, the regulator would have been able to issue warnings and conditions of practice to retain registration, or give advice to nurses without going to a full public hearing. The NMC would also have been able to ban nurses with poor English language skills from practising. ‘This is a sad day and a missed opportunity for us,’ said Ms Smith. ‘I am hugely disappointed that the government has not included this revolutionary bill in its final session of parliament.’ The NMC is consulting on proposals to raise its £100 annual registration fee to £120 from February 2015, arguing it has no choice because of spiralling FtP costs.

Great progress

The regulator spends around 80 per cent of its annual budget on FtP cases. ‘There is a direct link between this and the registration fee,’ Ms Smith told Nursing Standard. ‘We hold 22 hearings every day and I cannot see a point when that will come down. If we think a referral is serious, we investigate and we have a hearing,’ she said. Ms Smith said great progress had been made on FtP and she vowed to continue the push for new legislation. ‘The government’s failure to commit to the bill severely damages our efforts to further improve patient safety, by modernising the regulation of healthcare professionals.’ RCN senior legal officer Roz Hooper said: ‘A lot of NMC time is spent on less serious cases, which could have been dealt with by the employer, and do not merit the amount of time spent on them. It would be better if the full armoury of a public hearing is used for the most serious cases, rather than what can be relatively small errors.’ june 11 :: vol 28 no 41 :: 2014 13

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A future nurse of the year?

Meet Pepper, the robot who could one day be programmed to provide nursing care...
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