The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has announced that they are to make ‘radical’ changes to the way in which it inspects and regulates services. The announcement comes following criticism of its performance and many saying that it has lost sight of safety.
The CQC is the independent regulator of all health and social care services in England. The role of the CQC is to ensure that care provided meets national standards of quality and safety. The Commission began operating on 1 April 2009 and replaced the Healthcare Commission, Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health Act Commission.
Previous reports have identified recruitment problems within the CQC which meant that the number and quality of inspections have suffered. Two years ago, MPs on the House of Commons’ Health Select Committee said it had failed to grasp its primary role to ensure patient safety as a “tick-box” culture developed. It also prompted the unusual step from David Cameron in criticising an independent regulator himself.
Since then, the CQC has increased the number of inspectors by more than 200 to 955. However, earlier this year a new Health Select Committee report warned that the CQC had still yet to solve its problems.
In response, the leadership at the CQC is making an attempt to re-launch the regulator with a new three-year strategy for 2013 to 2016.
The new strategy will change the way in which the CQC inspects and regulates services to attempt to make sure that they provide people with safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality care and also to encourage services to make improvements.
Care Quality Commission New Strategy
The changes will include:
- Appointing Chief Inspectors of hospitals and social care and support;
- Developing new fundamental standards of care;
- Making sure inspectors specialise in particular areas of care and lead teams that include clinical and other experts;
- Introducing national teams in NHS hospitals that have specialist expertise to carry out in-depth reviews of hospitals with significant or long-standing problems;
- Improving understanding of how well different care services work together by listening to people’s experiences of moving between different care services;
- Publishing better information for the public, including ratings of services; and
- Strengthening the protection of people whose rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act.
CQC Chairman, David Prior, was reported as saying:
“We have recognised we need to change and are determined to do so swiftly. We will work with those we regulate and our own staff to develop a better system of regulation and to build a high-performing organisation that is well run.”
Following years of criticism, it seems crucial that the CQC change their ways of working. The new strategy suggests that there will be developments so that the system improves but it remains to be seen whether the changes are enough to restore public confidence.
The changes are due to come into effect in NHS hospitals and Mental Health Trusts first and will then expand and adapt to other sectors between 2014 and 2016.
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