To Scotland and back

The NMC not only has two permanent hearing locations in London, but also has a permanent base in Edinburgh, as well as carrying out hearings in temporary locations in Cardiff and Dublin. 

Last week, I got to visit the Edinburgh location for the first time.  What a lovely city!  Unfortunately, there was little time for sight seeing, as I was there for a three-day hearing, interspersed with a day hearing down in London.  I saw quite a bit of the airport though!  The Edinburgh hearing was an allegation of failing to abide by interim conditions of practice. As I've mentioned before in this blog, it is important to stick to conditions of practice, otherwise it will cause you difficulties later on.  Despite getting aspects of the case knocked out with a submission of no case to answer, the remainder of the charges led to a finding of impairment, and a short 3 month suspension order.  This was a disappointing result in a case where the panel could easily have justified a caution order instead.  It took the shine off my visit and I feel sorry for my client.  To reiterate an often rehearsed learning point though, the panel found that in her evidence, my client had consistently tried to put the blame elsewhere.  This really hurts any attempts to show insight and remediation, and is an important reminder that demonstrating insight is key where errors have been made.

On the bright side though, my visit to London was successful in ensuring that a substantive conditions of practice order, in a case of patient death, was allowed to lapse on the day of the hearing, meaning my nurse could return back to unrestricted practice immediately.  This case was a perfect example of how accepting failings, expressing remorse and demonstrating insight led first to a conditions of practice order (where a panel had previously expressed the view that only 12 months' suspension would suffice), and then led to removal of the order at the first opportunity.