Hello everyone,

I’m sure most Health Check readers will remember the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal. What you may not recall, however, is that it unfolded under a Labour government’s watch.

In fact, a former Labour health secretary played a key role in denying bereaved families a public inquiry. That same health secretary – Andy Burnham – is now the frontrunner in the expected Labour leadership contest.

As Mr Burnham launched his campaign to become the MP for Makerfield, I spoke to the daughter of a woman who died at the hospital. She shared her thoughts on the scandal the Labour mayor would rather leave in the past.

Elsewhere, the concerning Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda continued to escalate this week. The Independent’s Rachel Hagan explains why the crisis should serve as a warning to the UK and US over foreign aid cuts.

And finally, while many of us are melting in this sweltering weather, Maria Lally asks: are eight glasses of water a day really enough?

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Living well

This week, we returned to an issue The Independent has spent years investigating – failures within the UK’s nursing regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

A fresh scandal emerged after the NMC revealed that hundreds of nurses had been allowed back onto its register over a 12-year period without undergoing the proper vetting process.

The failure meant that at least 15 nurses or midwives were able to continue working when they should not have been. Concerns around those cases include individuals with serious criminal convictions.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because this is far from the first time questions have been raised about the regulator’s oversight. Last year, we revealed that the NMC allowed a nurse accused of rape to continue working with vulnerable hospital patients for a year, despite police warning the regulator he was a suspect in an active case.

That investigation followed a series of reports published by The Independent in 2023 and 2024, which exposed whistleblower allegations of a “toxic” and “bullying” culture within the organisation that allowed rogue nurses to continue practising unchecked.

Those investigations ultimately prompted the NMC to commission an independent inquiry, led by former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal, which concluded that a toxic culture at every level of the regulator was putting both the public and nurses at risk.

Since our reporting first emerged in 2023, the NMC has overhauled its leadership in an attempt to address the crisis. But the Professional Standards Authority, which oversees the regulator, has warned it has yet to see substantial improvement. The NMC’s new chief executive has previously said meaningful change could take at least three years.

I’d be particularly interested to hear from those working on the frontline. As always, you can email me in confidence at [email protected].

Health explained

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