Streeting: CQC "Not Fit For Purpose"
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- Published: Friday, 26 July 2024 10:06
- Written by Guy Tuggle
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Three weeks ago he described the NHS as "broken". Now a ‘stunned‘ Health & Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, has described the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as "unfit for purpose".
Mr Streeting’s comments are likely to invoke considerable schadenfreude across many quarters of the dental profession. The regulator’s unwieldy ’one size fits all’ powers are widely regarded as being totally out of proportion to the efficient operation of practices that typically employ fewer than a couple of dozen workers.
An ’interim report’ led by Dr Penny Dash,chair of the North West London Integrated Care Board reveals that
- CQC inspectors lacked experience. Some had never visited a hospital,others had never met anyone with dementia yet were inspecting care homes
- Some hospitals hadn’t been inspected for over a decade
- Some new care providers had not been given a rating five years after opening
- Inconsistency in assessing services
The CQC is behind its pre-Covid levels of inspection and is understood to be grappling with IT issues following the onboarding of a new computer system.
The interim report, due to be published today (Friday 26th), says that the CQC’s ’significant failings’ were hampering its ability to identify underperformance.
The full report will be published this autumn.
Dental practices are perceived by the CQC as relatively low risk and consequently the regulator only aims to inspect ten per cent of them each year.
Selecting practices for inspection is a factor of the passage of time since a practice was last inspected, a response to concerns raised or picked up from local and social media, or by random selection.
New practices, or those that have been subject to change of status, for example when a partnership becomes a limited company or where there is a change of ownership, are automatically subject to scrutiny from the CQC.
One practice owner, who did not wish to be identified, told GDPUK "we haven’t been inspected since 2012.
Our inspector was a retired hospital nurse. She wanted a couple of things actioned ahead of a follow up inspection. This,however, was conducted by a retired police officer who was, to put it politely, clueless about the specifics of IFC and yet was able to play ’God’ with the reputation of my practice".
Since 2015 has sought to use inspectors with a dental practice grounding.
Mr Streeting told LBC’s Nick Ferrari that "any one (of the failings) would be shocking, taken together they constitute a litany of failure".
Mr Streeting acknowledged that within the CQC were some expert people doing a good job and care needed to be taken not to ’tar everyone with the same brush’.
Because of the failings, the public could not have faith that the published CQC ratings were an accurate reflection of quality of care within a particular practice, hospital, or care home.
CQC ’Idiosyncratic’
Dame Julie Mooore, Chair of Health Data Research UK and former Chief Executive of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (2006-2018) also cast doubt on the reliability of CQC ratings.
Speaking to Nick Ferrari, Dame Moore told LBC that the CQC was an "idiosyncratic" organisation and that following inspection you just have to "grin and bear it and take it on the chin, because it does not reflect reality".
She cited the experience of a relative who was treated in a hospital rated ’outstanding’ yet the care received was ’appalling’. A complaint was met with a dismissive letter of denial.
Dame Moore also bemoaned the inexperience of inspectors and the scope of inspections. "We need to measure the things that matter, and talk to the patients!" she said.
The CQC has accepted the report’s findings. Last month its Chief Executive, Ian Trenholm abruptly quit his £195,000 position. No reason was given. Perhaps Dr Dash’s report offers some insight ...
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