Proposed changes to the NMC fitness to practise procedures

Proposed changes to the NMC fitness to practise procedures

Title: Proposed changes to NMC rules to improve the efficiency of our fitness to practise procedures

Date: October 2011

Summary: The rule changes proposed by the NMC are intended to improve the efficiency of their fitness to practise process, in areas including the initial consideration and investigation of allegations, notice of referrals and voluntary removal from the register.

In our response to the consultation, we expressed disappointment that more time had not been made available for responses to be submitted, and that CHRE had not been alerted to the announcement.

Whilst we agreed with the principle behind some of the proposals, we were concerned that the NMC did not provide a draft of the actual rule changes they are proposing, thus making it difficult to assess their potential impact accurately. Given that making changes to rules is an expensive and time-consuming process, we remain to be convinced that the proposal is the ‘right-touch’ solution to specific problems.

Our responses to the specific proposals can be found in our full response.

You can find the original consultation here.