The CQC has published a report on the state of care in England after carrying out 13,000 inspections across the sector.
The main findings show:
- One in 10 NHS hospitals failed to treat people with the respect they deserve and failed to involve them in decisions about their care.
- 15 per cent of social care services were not providing care that respected people.
- 23 per cent did not have adequate staffing levels.
The report recognises the challenges facing the care sector such as the increase in people requiring care for age-related conditions. CQC accepts that there are many examples of providers delivering excellent care but also says inspectors have seen examples of services that have not been able to cope with these changes.
David Behan Chief Executive of the CQC said “health and care services need to rise to the challenge of responding to the increasingly complex conditions suffered by our ageing population. That means delivering care that is based on the person’s needs, not care that suits the way organisations work. It also means that different services need to work well together in an integrated way that meets the best interests of the people who use these services. CQC will use its increasing knowledge and understanding, gained through thousands of inspections of services, to spot growing trends that are directly leading to poor care. Where we find standards are not being met we require improvements and we will use our enforcement powers where necessary to tackle issues such as staff shortages or the failure of service providers to involve people in decisions about their own care.”
Martin Green from ECCA said “this report adds to our knowledge and will allow us to focus on those areas that need to be addressed to improve services for people. We are pleased to see the first steps being made by CQC to identifying the factors involved in good and poor care. The health and social care sector is facing a challenging time and we all need to work together to promote what is good and ensure lessons are learned from poor practice. However, we want to see national and local government play their part in ensuring care is adequately funded and resourced to provide the personalised social care people need.”
A copy of the report can be found at the following link:
