Within the next three months CQC is planning to inspect the 10% of practices it considers ‘most worrying’.
The CQC is set to release ratings from over 300 practices over the next two weeks from the first wave of its revamped inspection scheme and up to a thousand inspections are scheduled for inspection before 2015.
CQC’s intelligent monitoring system has analysed data from all practices and ranks them on a six-point scale ahead of their CQC inspection. Around 20% of practices have been allocated to band 1 or 2, meaning they will be considered ‘high-risk’ and will be prioritised for inspection. The vast majority of practices (80%) fall into bands 3 to 6, indicating low concern.
Chief inspector of general practice Professor Steve Field said that intelligent monitoring ‘means we can focus on the most worrying and concerning practices’ but the data ‘only tells you a certain amount’ and some practices may carry high risk simply because of the area and pressures they deal with. This is why Steve Field believes that inspections are needed to give accurate ratings.
