By: 18 July 2018
NMC puts patients and families at the heart of its work

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has today set out how it plans to implement and build on the recommendations of the Professional Standards Authority’s (PSA) Lessons Learned Review.

The proposed programme of work, which will be discussed by the NMC’s Council on 25 July, details how the regulator plans to take a new direction and ensure that patients and families are at the heart of what it does.

The NMC is taking immediate steps to adopt a new person-centred approach to fitness to practise. This will ensure that patients and families are treated with compassion and respect, and that their concerns about nurses and midwives are properly addressed and listened to. The regulator has set up a Public Support Service and a network of 50 employee public support champions who are already starting to bring about change.

The NMC is also improving the way it communicates with people to make sure that it is clear, empathetic, helpful and easy to understand – this includes a full review of all written correspondence.

There will be improved information for patients, families and the public and NMC employees will receive training and support to identify vulnerable people and make sure they get the support they need. The NMC will make sure that all those raising concerns are treated as individuals to ensure that their needs are properly being met while better engagement with patient and public groups will mean their voices are always represented in the organisation’s work and plans for the future.

A new approach to dealing with complaints about the NMC will also be developed, focussing on openness, transparency and accountability. The regulator will listen to the views of those making complaints to improve the information it provides and they way it resolves complaints.

The NMC is also committing to ensuring its values are better embedded across the organisation through its re-prioritised People Strategy.

Philip Graf Chair of Council said: “The mistakes of the past should never have happened and no apology will ever be enough for the families we so badly let down. But we’re absolutely committed to learning the lessons of the past and ensuring that no other families have to go through the same experience again.

“It’s vital that patients and families are at the heart of what we do going forward and this programme of work is the first step to ensuring that. While we can never alter the past, I hope this work goes some way to showing all those who lost loved ones or were affected by the tragic events at Morecambe Bay how seriously we take this report and that change is our number one priority.”

Source: NMC