Watchdog let nurse accused of rape continue to practise

Review finds shocking failures within Nursing and Midwifery Council after The Independent reported insider's allegations

- REBECCA THOMAS

An explosive review of the nursing watchdog has found a toxic and dysfunctional culture at “every level” and an organisation that turned a blind eye to serious sexual, physical and racist abuse. Shocking failures within the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) include a seven-year delay in striking off a nurse who was accused of raping a colleague and sexually assaulting a patient.

In another finding, the NMC – which regulates more than 800,000 staff – took no action despite knowing that nurses and midwives had been accused of accessing category A images of child sexual abuse.

The review, carried out by Nazir Afzal KC, was commissioned after a series of reports by The Independent revealed allegations from an inside whistleblower. Former public prosecutor Mr Afzal said he was close to tears upon hearing the testimonies of hundreds of staff interviewed for his report. He applauded this publication for shining a spotlight on the issue, saying: “Thank you to The Independent because you gave a voice to the whistleblower. Everything that the whistleblower has said has been confirmed by our findings.”

The former chief executive of the NMC, Andrea Sutcliffe, apologised to all those affected and described their experiences as “not acceptable”.

Following a five-month-long investigation, the report accused the NMC’s leadership of failing to take concerns seriously or to tackle problems it had been aware of for the past 15 years.

Other shocking findings include:

• Multiple failures by the NMC to act on allegations of sexual and physical abuse against children, staff, and patients

• Delays in acting against nurses accused of perpetrating mental and physical abuse

• Racism cases against workers being dropped because of an apparent attitude that “people are free to be racist in their own time”