Nigerian nurses urge Streeting to help clear up 'unjust' test cheating claims

A group of more than 100 Nigerian nurses have called on the health secretary to help them correct "a significant injustice" after the nursing regulator accused them of cheating in tests to practise in the UK.

- Diane Taylor

The nurses said their lives were destroyed when the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) accused them of fraud, having concluded that the computer-based tests in numeracy and clinical practice were completed implausibly quickly.

The NMC said last May that widespread fraud had been identified at the Yunnik Technologies test centre in Ibadan, Nigeria, which was overseen by the NMC's test provider, Pearson Vue.

The nurses claim many retook the tests in the UK and completed them in similar times. They said they had no need to cheat as the tests were simple, and called on the NMC to provide forensic evidence they had cheated.

In a letter to Wes Streeting, the nurses say: "We are concerned that although there are irregularities with the test centre, the action taken by the Nursing and Midwifery Council means an unjust collective punishment of all of us. This means that many of us have lost our jobs, our livelihoods and our reputations.”

Many of the nurses have been banned from practising and have had to take lower-paid jobs as care workers. "I face bullying, insults, shame, disgrace in my office and ward," said one. "My career has been on hold for more than 13 months, even after passing the new test. People treat me as a fraud and without respect. It has been hell on earth."