How others do it
At the beginning of this month two new regulatory bodies came into being:
the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the Health Professions Council
(HPC). The former takes over from the UK Central Council for Nursing Midwifery
and Health Visiting and the latter takes over from the Council for Professions
Supplementary to Medicine.
What is of particular interest about these two new organisations is that
they faced the same issues as they were being established that are now
facing the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and its Council at the moment,
albeit a year or so later. In some ways, the echoes are uncanny and if
evidence were needed that regulation is affecting all health professions,
it can be seen in this week’s cover story (p460). There, it says:
“Like the other new bodies, [the NMC] will have to steer through
a platform of reforms in continuing professional development, fitness
to practise procedures and streamlining the professional register.”
At one level the transition of these two bodies seems to have been straightforward.
A year ago they were shadow bodies. Now they are up and running. Jonathan
Asbridge, president of the NMC, is quoted as saying: “It is not a
translation. It is actually a new beginning.” Mr Asbridge was not
involved in the former UKCC or in any other regulatory body. In other
words, he takes over his role without any baggage from the past.
But underneath, one can only guess at the objections to the new organisation,
the original arrangements that the old guard did not want to change, the
objections to the introduction of compulsory CPD and having to welcome
lay members to their councils.
In a future article, The Journal will be looking at how doctors, dentists
and opticians are faring and it will be interesting to learn what problems
they are facing and how they are dealing with them.
However, it is to the credit of both the NMC and the HPC that they have
arrived. Their first few months may be bumpy. No doubt there are disaffected
members who see it as the end of life as they have known it, but the fact
that they have both been there, and overcome obstacles, should help the
Royal Pharmaceutical Society formulate its future. It can learn what works
and what does not, what the Government expects and how it can provide
modern regulation that satisfies the desires of most of the membership.
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