22.01.14
MPs find regulator now has ‘coherent plan’
The CQC is now better able to protect patients, the health select committee has found.
MPs approved of the new approach to regulation, introducing Ofsted-like ratings for hospitals. The new surveillance system, which will include a range of indicators related to quality of care, was also held up as a good step forward.
But the committee called for government to reconsider widening the CQC’s remit to cover financial performance, and suggested that safe staffing levels should be extended to include midwives and doctors, as well as nurses.
Breaches of these levels should automatically trigger inspections by the regulator, they recommended.
Committee chair Stephen Dorrell MP said: “The CQC has been a case study in how not to run a regulator, but essential reforms implemented by the new management are turning the CQC around.
“The CQC has a renewed sense of purpose and now understands that it exists to ensure that care providers meet basic standards and to intervene when they do not.
“Putting in place systems to inspect hospitals and care homes proved too much for the CQC in previous years. Inspections were superficial and produced reports which bore little relation to reality, but the CQC now has a coherent plan to make sure providers are properly examined.
“Giving inspection teams the time and tools to understand what is really happening in hospitals, GP surgeries and care homes is fundamental. The CQC is now doing this by recruiting specialist inspectors who can understand and interpret what they observe during inspections.”
CQC chairman David Prior said: “This report marks an important milestone."
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