Nursing watchdog failing to investigate thousands of complaints amid concerns rogue staff going unchecked

Exclusive: Former Victims’ Commissioner Dame Vera Baird KC says ‘enormous’ backlog is ‘worryingly high’ and called for urgent action

The nursing watchdog failed to investigate thousands of complaints last year as it battles a huge backlog amid concerns rogue staff are being left unchecked.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has rejected hundreds more cases without investigation every year since 2018, including 339 where nurses faced criminal proceedings, 18 for alleged sexual offences and 599 over allegations of violence in 2021-22, according to data shared exclusively with The Independent.

The new figures come after this newspaper revealed shocking allegations that nurses and midwives accused of serious sexual, physical and racial abuse are being allowed to keep working because whistleblowers are being ignored and that the NMC was failing to tackle internal reports of alleged racism.

And now, a new internal document, obtained by The Independent, reveals more staff have come forward to raise concerns since our exposé.

Former Victims’ Commissioner Dame Vera Baird KC said the backlog of complaints was “worryingly high” and called for urgent action to tackle it.

She said: “This backlog is enormous, but it is a worryingly high number and the tendency when there are those [backlogs] is to get rid of them however you can and that can mean sketchy justice and sketchy inquiries.

“If [the NMC] is under as much pressure as the evidence suggests, they probably need to appoint a team of specialist investigators for the backlog, so [NMC staff] can apply themselves to tackle a normal level of complaints.”

The latest NMC figures show 5,339 complaints are yet to either be dropped, investigated or concluded – with some 2,153 of those yet to have been processed at the first screening phase. In 2022-23, 3,318 complaints were closed without investigation and 1,491 progressed to the investigation stage – up 37 per cent from the 2,418 rejected and 1,857 progressed in 2018-19.

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The data comes as a new internal document, seen by The Independent, reveals issues raised during an all-staff meeting on 28 September. Their concerns include:

• colleagues not feeling comfortable to speak out about sexism, homophobia, bullying and harassment
• Black NMC staff reporting feeling unsafe and “marginalised”
• NMC investigators saying they have “far too many cases” which “leads to cases not being properly investigated”
• “immense” caseload pressure means the investigation process is running under “extreme pressure”

Staff also raised further questions over the NMC’s approach to regulation.

During the briefing, one staff member said the regulator’s handling of complaints drew parallels to the case of Met Police officer Wayne Couzens who was convicted of flashing before going on to rape and murder Sara Everard.

They warned that “past behaviour is an indicator of future behaviour” and asked why the NMC did not take a hardline approach to the cases highlighted by The Independent.

Another employee said: “If a nurse believes that they can get away with their terrible behaviour, they will likely continue to commit more wrongdoings” and feared the cases known about were only the “tip of the iceberg”.

Dame Vera Baird said whistleblower claims that the NMC council is prioritising its reputation is ‘very serious criticism indeed’ (PA)

Dame Vera raised concerns that one allegation from the whistleblower who first raised issues to The Independent claiming that the NMC council was prioritising its reputation over its responsibility to the public, was a “very serious criticism indeed”.

“This is exactly what the police do, they prioritise protecting the reputation of the police. The consequences of that attitude has been a catastrophic failure of confidence by the public and we want to avoid that loss of confidence in this integral part of the health system,” she said.

The NMC said the rise in the number of closed cases came after it changed its guidance to staff on how to assess complaints in 2021. That stated it would only investigate cases that amounted to “serious concern” and instead put “greater emphasis” on employers resolving the issue.

The watchdog said the new guidance said that cases may not be investigated if the staff member complained about responded by taking “sufficient steps to address or mitigate the area of concern”.

Andrea Sutcliffe, chief executive for the NMC, said: “We aim to progress cases swiftly and safely, to reduce distress for people involved and enable us to focus on the most serious, evidenced concerns. We do not close cases unless it is the right thing to do, and we have a process to review decisions where needed.”

She added a review of its screening processes last year, which looked at 50 cases, and found no problems.

Since The Independent’s exposé, the watchdog has launched three external reviews, two of which will be headed by top barrister Ijeoma Omambala KC.

This story was changed to reflect data on the types of complaints extracted from 2021-22 figures not 2022-23.