As part of our aim of protecting the public, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland is legally responsible for considering complaints against nurses and midwives who practise in Ireland. Our Fitness to Practise department aims to deal with all complaints fully, fairly and in accordance with the legislation which gives us our regulatory powers.

New legislation, the Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) Amendment Act, 2020, which came into effect on 01 August 2021 means a number of changes to the manner in which NMBI deals with these complaints.

Many of the changes introduce efficiencies and remove some of the cumbersome administrative steps which delayed the process, including the following:

• The NMBI CEO can now decide not to progress a complaint if it is deemed that it is not made in good faith or is frivolous or vexatious. For example, this could be where the complaint may not relate to a registrant’s practice as a nurse/midwife or where there are repeated complaints from the same complainant. It also arises where a complainant is already in a conflicted position with a registrant.
• The Preliminary Proceedings Committee (PPC), which is the first stage of the process, can now request the registrant to offer undertakings and where these are offered, the investigation into the complaint is completed.
• The inquiry panel for new inquiries will be reduced from five persons to three. Smaller inquiry panels are less daunting for registrants.

Further, more detailed information will be available on our website in the coming weeks.