The NMC has launched guidance to employers on how to ensure the referrals they make to them are appropriate following a recent pilot which showed up to 70% of those received did not fall into the need for regulatory intervention.

However despite this pilot ALL cases received by the NMC are investigated causing concern that many, as we know, should not be. Any investigation potentially causes harm to the registrant undergoing it whether psychological, financial or worse. The degree of harm may be increased with the length of time the investigation continues for and we know that investigations can take a minimum of 15 months to conclude but often many years, if local trust investigation is included in the time frame.

Potentially this means the wrong people are being investigated  - does the equally mean that those who should be investigated are slipping through the net causes a risk to public safety?

How can we be assured that the process is not doing more harm than good

How can we ensure effective regulation

These steps are welcomed but a timeframe is not attached and no guarantee that those who refer unnecessarily will not continue to do so.

Will an employer lacking insight into their poor investigatory skills, or their inability to neutrally investigate cultural or systemic issues, often raised by the registrant that is then referred to the NMC, really take these measures on board?

We hope so... time will tell...