CQC recruiting to hit inspection targets
The Care Quality Commission wants to recruit up to 200 health and social care professionals in order to achieve the required number of inspections by the end of the financial year
The commission wants to create a network of professionals who are available to work with compliance inspectors on technically demanding inspections or in areas where there are a large number of inspections required, according to HSJ.
Figures published at the CCGs latest board meeting, show at the end of the first quarter of 2012-13 it was behind on inspections of independent healthcare providers, dentists and private ambulance services.
It was also off-target on adult social care locations, having inspected 4,700 out of a required figure of 4,994, and NHS trusts, having inspected 76 against a target of 81.
Inspections of cosmetic surgery clinics, in the wake of the scare over breast implants earlier this year, and of abortion clinics, on the order of former health secretary Andrew Lansley, were blamed in part for the under-performance.
Former CQC chief executive Cynthia Bower announced annual inspections of NHS providers and most social care providers in July 2011. However, the CQC’s strategy document, currently out for consultation, suggests this may not be sustainable long term.
CQC chief executive David Behan told HSJ: “We are looking to bring in up to 200 health and care professionals over the remainder of this financial year. What we want to do is use these people to work with our inspectors to deliver our inspection programme.”
Applicants can have a clinical or managerial background and are likely to have experience in nursing or other professions allied to medicine and social care and who could work flexibly.
The regulator already has a bank of experts willing to work with the CQC on major investigations, such as the one launched into Sherwood Forest Hospitals Foundation Trust last week.
At Sherwood Forest the CQC team is being supported by leading figures from the Royal College of Pathologists and Royal College of Nurses.
The new bank will be funded out of the CQC’s existing budget which is currently forecast to be underspent by around £7m this year.
