CQC subject to further restrictions as patient safety overhaul announced

The under-fire CQC has been ordered to stop inspections of integrated care systems (ICSs) for the next six months, with a major review of the organisation highlighting “serious internal failings”.

The report, led by integrated care board chair Dr Penny Dash and published today, follows interim findings on the performance of CQC found a series of major failings, leading to Health Secretary Wes Streeting branding the organisation as “not fit for purpose”.

The Department for Health and Social Care said that Mr Streeting had accepted the recommendation that the CQC “formally pauses the implementation of its assessments of (ICSs)… as it works to restore public confidence in health and care regulation” to enable it “to focus on getting the basics right”.

Inspections of ICSs by the CQC had been opposed by the NHS Confederation for some time, with its chief executive Matthew Taylor welcoming the development, saying: “Given the stark findings, we believe the decision to pause ICS inspections is the right one.”

The latest findings around the work of the CQC come as a review of five other national safety organisations has been ordered by the Health Secretary, to help simplify the “overly complex” approach to regulation and monitoring.

Alongside the CQC, the quality and governance of the National Guardian’s Office, Healthwatch, the Health Services Investigation Body, Patient Safety Commissioner and NHS Resolution will also be examined.  

Nisha Sharma, Principal Lawyer in our medical negligence team, works extensively with families who have been impacted by poor standards of care within the NHS. She has welcomed the moves towards better standards and regulation.

“When the Health Secretary himself deems the CQC, our main healthcare watchdog, as not being fit for purpose, then we need to see urgent action being taken. Standards within the NHS – and particularly in key services such as maternity – have fallen to dangerous levels, and we need the confidence that tough regulation is going to identify the failures and mandate improvements,” she says.

“We hear first-hand from our clients how devastating their experience of healthcare is, and tougher monitoring and regulation is absolutely essential to tackling this head-on. Patient safety and wellbeing depends on us having a high-quality and well-functioning NHS, and we are a long way from that currently.

“We welcome plans for an overhaul of the current system, which we would agree with Mr Streeting is just not working, and encourage swift and uncompromising action.”