Patients are being put at risk because hospitals and care homes are only being inspected every two years, a health select committee report concludes.
Following its annual review of the work of the Care Quality Commission, the select committee reports that the care regulator’s move away from its core function of inspection, towards the essentially administrative task of registration, represents a significant distortion of priorities.
Stephen Dorrell MP, chair of the committee, said: “In its review of the CQC, the committee concluded that the organisation’s priorities became distorted by a statutory deadline for the registration of dentists and that this distortion led directly to a drop of 70% in inspection activity during the second half of 2010-11 compared with the same period in the previous year.
“The primary causes of this distortion, which resulted in increased risk to patients, were the unrealistic statutory obligations imposed on the CQC.”
The report says the regulator was established without a clear and realistic definition of its priorities and objectives, and the timescales and resource implications were not properly analysed.
The registration process the CQC has tried to implement was not properly tested and proven before it was rolled out.
The report welcomes the government’s decision to postpone registration of GP practices, and recommends that proper planning, including piloting of the model for registration, should be undertaken before the revised implementation date of April 2013 is confirmed.
Commenting on the report, Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “Raising quality across the NHS is essential. The focus on quality must not be lost in this period of efficiency savings and reform.
“It is crucial for clinical advice and patient involvement to be embedded into CQC’s and Monitor’s processes. Doctors working on hospital wards and in primary care understand their patients’ needs and can advise health care regulators accordingly. We also urge the government to plan for the eventual recommendations from the current Francis Inquiry to be embedded in the regulatory process.”
Robert Francis QC chaired the inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and examined the operation of the commissioning, supervisory and regulatory bodies responsible for the trust. The inquiry’s recommendations are expected later this year.
The health select committee report also stresses the importance of the role of inspectors in assessing the culture in care providers.
Dorrell said: “CQC inspectors cannot hope to uncover every failure of care; they can and should, however, focus on the culture of the organisation to ensure that professionalism is respected and that the proper systems of reporting and accountability operate effectively.
“We are often asked what assurance can be given to whistleblowers. The best answer is to secure an open culture in which the professional obligation to raise concerns is embedded and respected. That is what CQC inspectors should be looking for - and why their inspection activity is so important to patients.”
Read the full report.