Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSUndercover nurse may appeal against NMC decision
The nurse struck off the NMC register for breaching patient confidentiality while filming a BBC documentary is considering a High Court appeal against the decision.
According to the Royal College of Nursing, which represented Margaret Haywood at an NMC hearing yesterday, Margaret Haywood could appeal the decision to the High Court.
Anyone wishing to appeal against an NMC decision has 28 days to take the matter to the High Court, the RCN said.
Chris Cox, the RCN’s director of legal services, said: ‘The Royal College of Nursing has been providing legal representation for Margaret Haywood from the outset and is very surprised at the severity of the punishment dealt out by the NMC panel. Our legal team are working with Margaret to explore the various legal options available to her in light of yesterday’s judgment.’
The RCN has also launched an online petition in support of Ms Haywood.
Ms Haywood secretly filmed patients for the BBC Panorame documentary, Undercover Nurse, in order to expose poor standards of care at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.
To view a copy of the NMC decision, read the attached file.
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Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | 18-Apr-2009 11:02 am
This lady exposed the truth, of what happens across all NHS trusts, the NHS should be grateful and ensure that all patient care is paramount. I am sure, because of what she did there is a lot of grateful people. How would the NMC feel it it had been one of ther relatives. Its time the NMC worked for a living and did something about the care of all pateints and encouraged nurses to speak out without fear of loosing there jobs. Instead to spending all the money on advertisments the government and the NHS trusts should use it for patient care.
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Bill Sutherland | 18-Apr-2009 10:05 pm
I think Margaret Haywood should be applauded for what she did, she knew the risks she was taking when she took the decision to do what she did. What these patients were subjected to was abuse and the nurses concerned should have been reported to POVA and struck off. It just goes tro show that the NMC is a waste of time and money.
It makes me wonder what we as nurses are paying for .
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