As a result of “anomalous data” at a third-party CBT test centre in Nigeria, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said it will investigate 500 nurses for fraudulent or incorrect entry to its register.

In a statement issued by the NMC, the nursing regulator said:

An organisation called Pearson VUE runs the CBT programme on the NMC’s behalf. It recently alerted us to anomalous data at one of its third-party CBT test centres in Ibadan, Nigeria. Pearson VUE stopped testing at this centre immediately.

A total of 512 people on our register (around five percent of all the professionals on our register who qualified in Nigeria) took their CBT at this test centre. We’re writing to them to set out what’s happened, and to tell them we’re opening cases to determine whether or not they gained fraudulent or incorrect entry to the register.

More people have applied to join the register but are not yet on it, therefore they can’t practise as a nurse or midwife. We’ve paused their applications. We’re writing to these applicants to ask them to retake the test, and to request more information that we’ll use to make a final decision about their application.

Andrea Sutcliffe, NMC Chief Executive and Registrar, said:

“Data from one test site in Nigeria is unusual and concerning. We have regulatory processes which we will now follow, and if necessary, we can refuse registration or remove people from our register, to protect the public and people who use health and care services.

“We know the public and people who use services may find this worrying. This affects just over 500 out of the 771,445 professionals on our register. They will all have passed the practical test in this country before they were accepted onto the register and to date no concerns have been referred to us about their fitness to practise.

“We should remember that thousands of nurses and midwives who were educated overseas have safely joined our register recently and continue to provide safe, effective and kind care across the UK.”

 

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