15.10.12
NMC offered £20m to clear backlog of work
The Department of Health has offered the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) a £20m grant to improve performance.
The money could be used to clear a backlog of fitness to practice cases and protect nurses and midwives from the full impact of a proposed registration fee increase of almost 60%.
The NMC is consulting on increasing the annual registration fee from £76 to £120 per year.
Health minister Dr Dan Poulter said: “I am pleased to be able to offer £20m of support to the Nursing and Midwifery Council, because the NMC is an important body with an important role to play in protecting patients.
“Following a period when we have heard of so many terrible abuses in the care of older people and vulnerable patients, it is important that organisations like the NMC are in the right shape to properly perform their job of protecting patients.
“I am also mindful that in these times of pay restraint, it is not right that hard working nurses and midwives are burdened with the full financial cost of improving the NMC’s fitness to practise function.
“We want to support the council and its new leadership in getting back on its feet financially and operationally, and I hope that it will accept our offer.”
An NMC spokesperson said: “Patients must be able to have confidence in the quality of care they receive from nurses and midwives, and we share the government's commitment to improve nursing and midwifery regulation.
“The NMC’s Council has a responsibility to ensure that the organisation is adequately resourced for the future in order to deliver effective and efficient public protection. We welcome the government’s offer of a grant to give us further options to contribute to the costs of regulating nurses and midwives. This will be discussed by our Council when it meets on 25 October.”
Chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, Cathy Warwick, urged the NMC to accept the grant and said: “For some time, it has been known that the Nursing and Midwifery Council faces a significant shortfall in its finances, and the Royal College of Midwives has argued that the cost of filling this hole should not fall on our cash-strapped members.
“Overall, this announcement is good news for our members and very good news for those nurses and midwives who are waiting to have their cases at the NMC heard. It also helps to maintain public safety and public confidence in the regulator.”
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