Disciplinary committee to hear complaints against nurses to be established

…Nurses and Midwives Act 2019 was unconstitutionally passed

All nurses, midwives and nursing assistants will now be mandated by law to get registered and licensed, following the passage of the Nurses and Midwives Bill 2022 in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
The Nurses and Midwives Bill 2022, which replaces the Nurses and Midwives Act of 2019, seeks to establish a Nurses and Midwives Council. It also requires nurses and midwives to be registered and licensed before they can practice their profession.

These registers will be overseen by said council and a list of all registered personnel will be published in the gazette yearly. However, much of the debate veered away from the contents of the new bill and into the circumstances under which the old one was passed, as several Opposition speakers argued that the old bill should have been left intact. In his presentation, Attorney General Anil Nandlall explained that the 2019 Act was passed in violation of the Constitution.
“In violation of the Constitution, in violation of the rule of law, they imposed a legislation on this nation by an ineffective Parliament and by a government that lost the power to do so. And we have a court ruling from the highest court in this land, supporting that position.
“Rather than accept an error was made, or better yet, accept that they acted unlawfully and violated the Constitution, every single member on that side spoke with great gusto, trying to explain and justify the blatant illegality,” Nandlall said.
The Attorney General noted that even though the Bill replaced the 2019 version, it still retained elements of the previous Bill. However, former Minister within the Public Health Ministry, Dr Karen Cummings was still of the view that the old bill should not have been replaced.
“Mr Speaker, if there is any veracity to the statement that an Act should not be repealed until the current one is passed, then how can this bill be repealed if according to the members of this PPP/C [People’s Progressive Party/Civic], it was not duly passed?” Dr Cummings asked.
The Bill was eventually passed, however, and now awaits the President’s assent. Among the things the Bill facilitates is the establishment of a five-member disciplinary committee so that persons aggrieved by nursing personnel’s professional misconduct could now make complaints.

The Bill also creates several offences and penalties including, practising nursing and midwifery without being registered and licensed, fraudulently procuring or attempting to procure registration using false or fraudulent representation, and directly or indirectly holding oneself out as being nursing personnel.
The Bill meanwhile sets out the application process for licensing, and states that the issuance of a licence may be refused, and a valid licence may be revoked or suspended. Provision is also made for the re-registration and also appeal against a decision on suspension, revocation, or non-renewal of a licence.
Further, nurses, midwives and nursing assistants are required to renew their licences. Any failure to do so within three months after the expiration date will result in a fine being imposed by the bill.
Additionally, the Bill has provision for the Minister to make regulations to give effect to the Act and for other specified matters.  Provision is also made for the transitional provisions to deal with the current members of the Council. Moreover, the Bill ensures that the funds of the Council are audited annually. (G3)