Nursing & Midwiferey Council Relaxes Its Entrance Rules

The Nursing & Midwifery Council, the nursing regulator, decided at its 1 July 2010 council meeting to relax ‘experience rules’ for nurses who come from other parts of the EU and want to work in the UK. Therefore, while UK and non-EU nurses must show they have 450 hours or more of relevant experience in the last three years, the EU nurses will have no such requirement when the rules come into place in October 2010.

There is a distinct possibility that more EU nurses will come to the UK as a result, with the possibility of more negligence cases. Soon hiring less experienced nurses from the EU will be cheaper than hiring UK nurses, thereby making them far more attractive to hospitals, clinics and agencies that provide healthcare services.

Unfortunately the recent case involving Dr Ubani shows what can happen when strict regulations are not in place. In that instance the agency Take Care Now employed Dr Ubani, a German doctor, who during his first out of hours shift in the UK gave a lethal overdose of painkiller to Mr David Gray. A coroner later found Dr Ubani was "incompetent and not of an acceptable standard"

Now it seems that, rather than stricter requirements being introduced, the Nursing and Midwifery Council have relaxed their checks. In 2009, there were 1,800 EU nurses registered with the Council to work in the UK. Numbers are expected to go up after the rule change.

From an employment law perspective, it now seems that it will now be harder for UK nurses to gain employment in this country than for EU nurses as they will no longer be judged against the same criteria. It seems that they will effectively be discriminated against because of their nationality. It is not difficult therefore to foresee a situation where the Nursing and Midwifery Council could face a claim for discrimination from a UK-national nurse.

Geoff Kew

Published on 13/09/2010