The Royal College of Nursing has cancelled its annual conference to help frontline members tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
The RCN Congress was scheduled to take place from the 7th to the 11th June 2020 in Liverpool, but will not go ahead during the worsening Covid-19 outbreak.
The RCN said in a statement:
‘It would simply not be right to divert our nursing workforce during this time. As an organisation all our energies are also required to support our members at this time.’
The Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) have also announced that revalidation periods for registered nurses will be extended and fitness to practise work will be scaled back during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The NMC has published a package of measures to inform the profession on what it will continue to do, stop or modify during the virus outbreak.
An update on plans for an emergency Covid-19 temporary register was not included in the guidance, however the NMC said “further information about this will be made very shortly”.
Published on the NMC website, the plans outline that as of this month the regulator is “extending the revalidation period for current registered nurses. This means they will each have an additional three months from their current revalidation application date to complete their application”.
The NMC stated:
“This is as flexible as we can be, under our current legislation, so we are seeking further flexibility from the government for the future.”
In terms of FtP, the NMC is postponing some face-to-face hearings and have announced that no new ones will be scheduled.
It said the four essential FtP services that had to continue to be delivered were:
- logging and risk assessing any new referrals, and any new information on existing referrals
- interim order applications and review hearings
- substantive order review hearings and
- High Court or Court of Sessions interim order extension applications.
“All other face-to-face hearings are being postponed and no new ones will be scheduled until further notice – this allows us to prioritise interim order and substantive order reviews,” the NMC stated.
The regulator said it was hoping to progress as many cases as possible via hearings on paper or by virtual hearings, meaning people did not have to attend in person.