Public's arena to report misconduct

Members of the public who have information that could identify nurses at Stafford Hospital guilty of misconduct have been urged to contact the nursing watchdog.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council has today confirmed it will be looking to take action against individual members of staff at the trust who may be guilty of breaching professional nursing rules.

Although the organisation will not launch its own wide-scale investigation of the nursing staff, it has begun looking at evidence gathered by the Francis Inquiry and its chief executive has also pledged to use complaints and evidence gathered by Cure the NHS.

The announcement follows a letter sent to the NMC by Cure the NHS urging it to take action against nurses guilty of providing appalling care at the hospital in recent years.

NMC chief executive Professor Dickon Weir-Hughes added the watchdog would act to bring those guilty of poor care to account.

He said: "Anyone reading the Francis report, and particularly those relatives of patients under the care of the trust, cannot fail to have been deeply moved by the distressing accounts it contains.

"The NMC has received a letter from Cure the NHS suggesting we should mount our own investigation into the events at the trust.

"However, given the considerable work already undertaken by the Francis Inquiry team, we feel that there would be limited value in a separate NMC investigation."

He added: "We intend to use the work already undertaken to identify and take action against those nurses whose practice has been shown to be deficient.

"Using the material collected by the Francis Inquiry, we have opened case files on a number of NMC registrants, including those in senior nursing leadership roles.

"We are continuing to work through the detail of the report to identify others referred to, but not directly identified.

"If anyone has additional information which could be of use we would ask them to contact us as soon as possible."

The NMC investigates cases where a nurse or midwives' fitness to practise has been called into question, for reasons such as misconduct or incompetence. Nurses could face a caution or they could be struck-off altogether.

Bosses at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs both Stafford and Cannock hospitals, is also working to identify staff who provided inadequate care to patients.

Chief executive Antony Sumara, who was appointed in August last year to turn the hospital around, said: "We are looking at every incident concerning trust staff in the Robert Francis Inquiry report.

"These incidents are being investigated and appropriate action taken when we can identify the individual concerned."