England’s health and social care watchdog is ‘not fit for purpose, according to the new Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting, pledging immediate action to ‘grip the crisis’.
His comments follow an interim report which found that significant failings were hampering the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) ability to identify poor performance at hospitals, care homes and GP practices.
‘When I joined the department, it was already clear that the NHS was broken and the social care system in crisis. But I have been stunned by the extent of the failings of the institution that is supposed to identify and act on failings,’ said Mr Streeting.
‘I know this will be a worrying development for patients and families who rely on CQC assessments when making choices about their care. I want to reassure them that I am determined to grip this crisis and give people the confidence that the care they’re receiving has been assessed. This Government will never turn a blind eye to failure.’
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The CQC regulates close to 15,000 care homes, 13,000 home care agencies, 11,500 dentists, 8,600 GPs and 1,200 hospitals as well as community services and supported living facilities.
The interim report on the healthcare watchdog led by Dr Penny Dash, chair of the Northwest London Integrated Care Board, revealed that inspection levels were still well below pre-Covid levels, that there was a lack of consistency in assessments, and there were problems with a faltering IT system.
She found that around a fifth of the locations the CQC has the power to inspect had never received a rating, while other organisations had not been reinspected for years. One inspection was around a decade old. The report also found that social care providers were waiting too long for their registration and ratings to be updated, with implications for local capacity.
Following the damning review of its performance, the Department of Health and Social Care announced immediate steps to restore public confidence in the CQC. This includes appointing Professor Sir Mike Richards, a former hospital physician and its first chief inspector of hospitals, to review its assessment framework, better transparency regarding how the regulator determines ratings for health and social care providers and increased Government oversight of the CQC.
Kate Terroni, CQC’s interim chief executive, said: ‘We accept in full the findings and recommendations in this interim review, which identifies clear areas where improvement is urgently needed. Many of these align with areas we have prioritised as part of our work to restore trust with the public and providers by listening better, working together more collaboratively and being honest about what we’ve got wrong.’