"You put your NHS head on, don't you?"

Why is a "local nurse", who according to the BBC consoled the mother of a Southport victim, not registered with the UK nursing regulator?

Here is the text of a letter I posted yesterday to the BBC’s Complaints department. I have added a number of images which were not included in the mailed letter.

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7^th September 2024

BBC Complaints
PO Box 1922,
Darlington,
DL3 0UR.

Dear Sir/Madam

“Clashes in Southport after town mourns in vigil for victims of stabbing attack” BBC News website, 29^th July 2024

A post time stamped 17:59pm on page 5 of the BBC’s live reporting of events in Southport on 29^th July 2024 titled 'How do you even comprehend?' includes the text “Local nurse Joanne Niemen, 49, spoke to our team in Southport earlier:” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cevwgqz0x41t?post=asset%3A6fab1d39-1d39-4028-bf37-e32a83957c6f#post

In the accompanying video interview Joanne Niemen describes how she consoled the mother of one of the victims, stating (at 15s): “You put your NHS head on don’t you?”

A further post on page 5 time stamped at 19:45pm states: “A local therapy nurse, who spoke to a mother of one of the victims, says her own daughter heard a "sinister scream" around the time of the attack”.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cevwgqz0x41t?post=asset%3A6858dcfb-c310-4c98-a609-b7963cbc1b3e#post

There is no Joanne Niemen listed on the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register: https://www.nmc.org.uk/registration/search-the-register/

Nor is there anyone with the surname “Niemen” listed under any of the fifteen categories on the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/check-the-register/

There is however a recommendation for a “massage therapist” in Southport named Joanne Niemen in a post dated 3^rd June 2015 on the website Who Do You (see panel 3): https://www.whodoyou.com/l/southport--united-kingdom/massage-therapist

How did the BBC team who interviewed and filmed Joanne Niemen arrive at the conclusion that she is a nurse? How did your team, or their BBC News colleagues, further arrive at the conclusion that Joanne Niemen is a “therapy nurse”? Are these factual statements? Has Joanne Niemen ever been employed by the NHS, as she appears to claim?

Yours sincerely,

Robert Stuart

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Note that the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s website states clearly that:

“All nurses working in the UK must be registered with us. Before registration, they must have successfully completed a nursing programme of education that is approved by us. They must also meet our requirements of good health and good character.”

And they really do mean “All nurses”:

All nurses then, it would seem, except for the one interviewed by the BBC in Southport on 29th July 2024.

I will post the BBC’s response when I receive it.

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