A licence for NHS Trusts to practice? A new system for monitoring standards announced
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has announced plans to give 66 NHS trusts a licence to provide services under a new, tougher system for regulating standards in the NHS.
From 1 April, 381 NHS trusts in England will have to be registered with the CQC by law to provide care. To be registered, trusts must show they meet new essential standards of quality and safety, which the regulator will constantly monitor.
The new standards cover important issues for patients such as treating people with respect, involving them in decisions about care, keeping clinical areas clean, and ensuring services are safe.
Where it finds trusts are not meeting standards, the regulator has stronger enforcement powers than ever before. This can start with a warning notice and escalate to fines, prosecution, restrictions on activities or in extreme cases, closure.
Cynthia Bower, CQC chief executive, says: “It is absolutely the responsibility of trust boards to ensure that standards are in place. These are the standards that every patient should be able to expect when they receive NHS care and they are now legally enforceable. This is a tough new system and we have stronger enforcement powers than ever before to make sure services improve.
"This initial registration process is just the start of the new system. For a number of trusts registration will be conditional on them taking immediate action to improve. Others have identified specific areas they say they are addressing. We will be keeping a very close eye on them to make sure they do. Safety is our number one concern here."
"The real work begins on 1 April when we will begin continuously monitoring standards. We are moving to a system where we will be looking at whether trusts are meeting the standards today and tomorrow, rather than in the past. We hope to identify and tackle problems earlier. We will carry out more inspections and we will look at the care people experience rather than just systems and processes. We will do more to listen and respond to the views of patients. If at any stage we believe a trust needs to take further action to protect patients, we will ensure this happens using our enforcement powers where necessary.”
The CQC will draw together intelligence and information about NHS care from a range of sources, creating quality-and-risk profiles for every trust in the country.
The regulator is also promising to take more account of the views of the public, gathering systematically the views of local patient groups and ensuring that patients have greater involvement in inspections.
Under the new system, trusts will be judged on the outcomes and experiences of patients, not just whether there are systems and processes in place.
The number of inspections at NHS trusts are set to rise significantly as well, with up to 2,000 reviews of compliance a year, the majority involving a visit. Inspections will involve observation of care, tracking of case studies and talking to patients and staff.
CQC says it will be proportionate, targeting resources at areas of concern and minimising inspection where organisations perform well. As a minimum, it will review every two years all trusts’ performance against the 16 standards that relate most closely to quality and safety.
CQC says that it will be constantly monitoring and adding to the picture of performance of an organisation, taking action as appropriate.
From April 2011, the registration system is set to cover dentists and private ambulances. From April 2012, it is set to include primary medical care services such as GPs and private midwives.
Now we wait to see if this will help improve the service the NHS can provide to its patients…….
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