CQC publishes annual state of care report

Topics covered: Ridouts professional advice

CQC has today published its fifth annual ‘state of care’ report on the state of health and care services in England.  The noticeable variation in the quality and safety of care in England is a running theme throughout the report with CQC stating that this variation is unacceptable.

The report highlights that over the past two years CQC has increased the amount of regulatory action it has taken across all sectors.  In particular, the number of warning notices issued has increased from 1,200 in 2012/13 to 1,588 in 2013/14.

The Report states “With the new fundamental standards coming into force by April 2015, CQC will have strengthened powers to act swiftly where there is a risk to people’s safety.  We will use these powers to act swiftly where there is a risk to people’s safety.  We will use these powers to hold poor providers to account through criminal or civil action, or even by stopping them from operating.”

Commenting on the report, David Behan, CQC Chief Executive, said “the findings from our inspections over the last year clearly show there is too much variation in quality and safety between services and within services.  People need to have confidence that they will get good care.  Our role is to identify what works well and why, and what doesn’t work, and use this information to drive improvement and close the gap.  We have seen some excellent care in all sectors…But we have also seen very poor care…While we celebrate good and outstanding care where we find it, we are calling time on unacceptable inadequate care.”  He adds that services found to be below the ‘good’ threshold should strive to improve and learn from those providers that have been found to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ through CQC’s new ratings system.  He also highlights the importance of strong, effective leadership which has been found to drive up the overall quality and safety at services.

The full report can be viewed here.

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