Broken healthcare regulator means we're all put at risk

Racism, misogyny and a backlog of cases have contributed to appalling decisions made by the NMC, writes Nazir Afzal KC

- Nazir Afzal KC

"The NHS is broken," declared the new health secretary, Wes Streeting, last week. And with public satisfaction in the NHS at its lowest ever level, few will argue.

But as a new government begins to inspect the damage, they will soon discover that changes to how we manage the NHS are only part of the solution. If we want to drive up standards, it’s time we took a serious look at the health regulators.

Over the last six months, I have been talking to hundreds of staff at the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), as part of an independent culture review. Our team was commissioned following worrying disclosures by a whistleblower who accused the regulator of failing to tackle serious sexual, physical and racial abuse because of a “culture of fear”.