New NMBI Rules Published on Fitness to Practise Subcommittees
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The Nurses and Midwives (Fitness to Practise Subcommittee) Rules 2022 were commenced on 9 May 2022. The Rules are contained within SI 236/2022.
The Rules deal with the establishment, membership, functions and procedures of Subcommittees established by the Nursing and Midwifery Board’s Fitness to Practise Committee. Such Subcommittees may perform the functions of the Fitness to Practise Committee in respect of a complaint, to include conducting the hearing of the complaint.
The main effects of the Rules are as follows:
- Fitness to Practise Subcommittees shall comprise of three members;
- Where the complaint concerns a registered nurse, one member of the Subcommittee shall be a registered nurse, and where the complaint concerns a registered midwife one member of the Subcommittee shall be registered midwife;
- The remaining two members of the Subcommittee shall be persons who are not and have never been nurses or midwives in Ireland or other jurisdictions;
- The Subcommittee will comply with the written procedures of the Fitness to Practise Committee but otherwise may regulate its own procedures when inquiring into a complaint.
The significant change brought about by these Rules is to reduce the composition of Subcommittees from 5 persons to 3 persons. Up to now, both a nurse and a midwife was required to sit on a Subcommittee, irrespective of which division of the Register the registrant the subject of the Inquiry belonged.
The rules are available here.
Written by Amy McMahon and Anne Lavelle.