Row grows over secrecy of nursing watchdogs

PRESSURE is mounting on the nursing regulator to reverse its decision to stop publishing allegations against medical staff ahead of disciplinary hearings. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has come under fire for reducing the amount of information available to the public and media in advance.

Charges, previously available for a week before online, will now be read out at the start of hearings and circulated only upon request.

Critics have lashed out, saying it makes it ‘virtually impossible’ for journalists to cover the 900 proceedings held every year.

Last night, John McLellan, director of the Scottish Newspaper Society, said: ‘I very much hope the NMC will understand the clear public interest in open justice and reverse this decision without further ado.’

Mr McLellan, who is seeking a meeting with the NMC about the change, added: ‘It is in the best interests of accused persons for there to be proper public scrutiny of such quasi-judicial hearings, as there is for courts of law.’

The decision came just weeks after the regulator was criticised over its handling of charges against ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey.

During a two-day hearing in Edinburgh this month, the NMC said Miss Cafferkey, 40, of Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, allowed an incorrect temperature to be recorded by Public Health England’s screening facil- ity at Heathrow Airport. She was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Details of draft charges emerged in August and final charges were published later in light of new evidence.

Miss Cafferkey said the NMC apologised for mistakenly releasing the allegations ahead of the hearing.

Central News, a specialist agency that reports on disciplinary hearings, is collecting signatories for a letter to NMC chief executive Jackie Smith.

It also plans to complain to the Professional Standards Authority.

Guy Toyn, director of Central News, said: ‘This decision is a disgrace and an affront to the open justice our democracy depends upon.

‘It makes a mockery of the NMC’s stated aim of transparency.

‘This makes it virtually impossible for the hearings to be covered and the NMC are only too aware of this.’

Mr Toyn said the NMC had not consulted with journalists, adding: ‘Ultimately, this decision is damaging to the NMC, the nursing profession and the public as a whole.’

Peter Laing, editor at Deadline News, an agency in Edinburgh that reports on NMC hearings, has written to Health Secretary Shona Robison asking her to raise the issue with the regulator.

Last night, Miss Smith said the move was ‘not a knee-jerk reaction’.

She added: ‘We have been looking at this for some time.

‘We have been looking at this in the context of what is fair for all parties and what should be in the public domain.

‘We are not denying people the opportunity to understand what a registrant is being accused of because the vast majority of what we do is public.’

Sarah Page, director of Fitness to Practise, said the name and headline charge – such as misconduct or lack of competence – would continue to be published ahead of hearings.

She added: ‘All the regulators adopt a slightly different approach.’