‘Better patient safety’ after poison nurse trial TODD FITZGERALD
MINISTERS have insisted sweeping changes have been introduced since the Stepping Hill Hospital murders to improve patient safety.
Hazel Grove MP William Wragg quizzed ministers on the steps it has taken to protect patients and improve the verification of qualifications and vetting of nurses recruited to the NHS.
Ben Gummer MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Care Quality, insisted that since the Stepping Hill case, checks have been bolstered and more clinical tests introduced.
Victorino Chua got 25 life sentences
He said the Nursing and Midwifery Council had strengthened its process for registering applicants from countries outside the European economic area, supported by more than £4m of additional government funding.
Improvements already implemented include a clinical test of competence, a more robust system of face-to-face identity checks and advanced passport scanning technology to verify identity documents.
Mr Gummer said that due to concern about untrained overseas nurses working in the UK, the NMC has also audited around 14,000 nurses. It did not result in any regulatory action.
He said wider measures to improve patient safety have included a new Care Quality Commission inspection regime and a new national programme led by Health Education England to improve training.
Mr Gummer said: “We expect the NMC’s registration processes and associ- ated checks to protect patient safety through being appropriate, robust, fit for purpose and effective, and by verifying that a nursing applicant is who they claim to be, is appropriately qualified, is competent and fit-to-practise.”
Registered nurse Victorino Chua, who had a Filipino qualification, was found guilty last month of murdering two patients and poisoning 19 others with insulin following a trial. His convictions cover attacks on 21 patients in the summer of 2011 and in January, 2012.
Chua, of Heaton Norris, injected insulin into medical products like saline ampoules and saline bags, leaving them for unwitting colleagues to administer to patients. He sentenced to 25 life sentences, but will serve a minimum of 35 years in prison.
Police have strong suspicions the killer nurse’s qualifications are bogus and that he may have paid someone to sit an exam required of newly qualified nurses in his home country.
Mr Wragg said: “Following the awful and shocking crimes which took place at Stepping Hill, it is important that we learn the lessons to protect patients in the future.
“I am pleased the government has responded to my question and that steps have already been taken to tighten up on the process of testing competence, identity checking, verification of qualifications and training.”