Following an independent review published in July, the Health Secretary stated that the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the body responsible for inspecting NHS Hospitals, GP surgeries, and Care Homes in England, was not fit for purpose.
The CQC currently provides four levels of ratings from outstanding to inadequate which can help members of the public decide where to attend for their care however the review found that inspectors lacked the necessary experience with some never having been in a hospital.
Failures identified in the report
Other failings that were identified in July were:
- Care home inspectors who had never met a person with dementia
- A backlog of assessments with one in five services having never been given a rating – this includes new care providers, GPs, and private health clinics that have opened in the last five years
- One NHS hospital has gone more than 10 years since its last inspection
- A lack of consistency with some large care home providers and groups of GPs left confused after receiving different ratings across multiple sites
Following publication of the report a new chief executive of the CQC has been appointed. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, has now promised to “overhaul the system to make it more effective and protect patient safety” as “the government will never turn a blind eye to failure”.
Comment
It is hoped that the new system will give patients confidence in their ratings and allow for resources to be directed to areas where there needs to be improvement in the standard of care provided.
How can we help?
If someone has been negligently misdiagnosed or diagnosed late because of medical negligence, this may give rise to a claim for compensation. For advice or if you have any questions, please call our expert Medical Negligence team, which is ranked in tier one by the independently researched publication, The Legal 500. Call us on 0800 024 1976 or contact us via our online form.
Contact us