STUDENT nurses and midwives could be taken out of Colchester’s hospitals because of concerns about care standards.

Their professional body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, has warned it may remove students studying and working on Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust’s wards.

The council says it fears students’ education could be harmed by working in the hospital environment highlighted by Government watchdogs.

If students were to be pulled out, it would present the trust with a huge problem, as all NHS hospitals rely heavily on students to carry out a good proportion of the basic day-to-day nursing work on their wards.

Council chief executive and registrar Dickon Weir-Hughes said he was concerned about the trust’s failings and those of another Essex trust, Basildon and Thurrock.

He explained: “We will be discussing the situation with the universities. We have the authority to remove students, if the learning environments prove detrimental to their education.”

Mr Weir-Hughes said the council was also considering action against senior nurses and midwives who flouted its code of conduct, performance and ethics.

He added: “The code remains relevant throughout a nurse or a midwife’s career, and it applies equally to those in senior leadership roles. We are now considering action, in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Order, 2001.

“Effective partnership between regulators, individual nurses and midwives and the public is pivotal to ensuring the public continues to have confidence in the professions and the health services. We are committed to working in partnership with the Care Quality Commission and would urge anyone who has a concern about the conduct of an individual nurse or midwife to first speak to the person in charge, or to contact the NMC.”

The trust has nursing students from both Anglia Ruskin and Essex universities on work-based placements.

No one at either university was available for comment last night. However it is understood staff and students at both have expressed surprise at the council’s announcement.