CQC to ramp up community healthcare inspections
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has announced it will inspect more community healthcare services.
In plans unveiled last month, the watchdog said inspections would be carried out by larger teams that would spend more time visiting providers. A star ratings system allowing patients to gauge the quality of operators will also be rolled out.
It added that it would trial the new system on five large-scale, mainly NHS providers, before applying it to the private sector.
It follows a spate of high profile care scandals such as Winterbourne View, where people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour suffered abuse at the hands of staff. It also reflects government plans to deliver more health services in community settings – including people’s homes, health centres and community hospitals – in a bid to lower NHS costs.
CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said: “We have not given enough specific attention to community health services in the past, so I am determined to strengthen our oversight of the sector.
“Where we can, we will align our inspections of community health services with other sectors we regulate, such as community mental health or learning disability services, substance misuse services, primary care services and acute hospitals,” he added.
Under the plans, the CQC will focus on areas such as access to services beyond office hours; the effectiveness of care and support for people living at home; preventing people from being admitted and re-admitted to hospital; and the quality of integration across health and care services.
It will use larger inspection teams that include specialists in various aspects of care – for example nurses, GPs, paediatricians and managers. Those who have used care services themselves will also take part.
The new approach will be trialled on five large organisations between January and March, before it is applied to smaller voluntary and private providers. The first to be inspected are:
• Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• Central Essex Community Services (a social enterprise)
• Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust
• Solent NHS Trust
• St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust (hospital and community health services)
