Care home and hospital inspections years out of date, says CQC chief executive

The Care Quality Commission has “lost its way” with inspections of attraction homes, hospitals and different facilities years retired of date, its caller main enforcement has said.

Sir Julian Hartley said an IT strategy introduced by the regulator had been “a implicit nonaccomplishment successful presumption of what it acceptable retired to achieve”, and helium promised a reappraisal into the problems.

The CQC is the assemblage that monitors and inspects each wellness and big societal attraction providers successful England to guarantee information and prime standards.

Most of its appraisal reports see an wide standing and determination are 4 fixed to wellness and societal attraction services: outstanding, good, requires improvement, and inadequate.

The Health and Social Care Committee heard past period that concerns being flagged to the CQC by healthcare unit and members of the nationalist were going months without a response, with a backlog of astir 5,000 notifications.

Sir Julian besides told MPs that unit believed the IT strategy rolled retired by the regulator past twelvemonth is not acceptable for intent and is preventing them from doing their job.

Effectively the CQC is not delivering connected its operational performance. It’s not delivering for radical that usage services and patients

Sir Julian Hartley, Care Quality Commission

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Sir Julian, 57, said: “If you’re reasoning astir wherever to enactment your mum successful a attraction home, you privation to person reliable accusation that’s up to date.

“Effectively the CQC is not delivering connected its operational performance. It’s not delivering for radical that usage services and patients.”

Sir Julian insisted the CQC’s inspection teams are inactive doing reliable work, but added: “I’m peculiarly acrophobic that arsenic a regulator we’ve not got nationalist assurance successful our expertise and our quality to beryllium capable to spot risks.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said past July the CQC was “not acceptable for purpose” and needed “radical reform”.

It came aft an autarkic reappraisal identified “significant interior failings” affecting the regulator’s quality to place mediocre show astatine hospitals, attraction homes and GP practices.

Sir Julian, who became main enforcement successful December, said the civilization astatine the CQC had been mediocre and helium stressed “how captious it is to person a positive, unfastened civilization and intelligence information wrong immoderate wellness and attraction organisation”.

He said helium is adopting a “truth and reconciliation” attack to crook the regulator’s fortunes around, including penning to each unit asking for feedback, and helium besides wants to name 4 caller main inspectors – 1 each for hospitals, societal care, GPs and intelligence wellness – portion giving patients a bigger voice.

Reflecting connected his ain acquisition with the attraction strategy aft breaking his cervix and limb successful a cycling mishap successful 2011, Sir Julian said: “After I was discharged the cracks betwixt antithetic services became much evident. Getting my symptom meds seemed to beryllium overmuch much hard than it needed to beryllium – and the interaction for me, recovering astatine location with a breached neck, was that I was sometimes successful acute symptom for reasonably agelong periods.

“Getting my physio sessions sorted retired again seemed to beryllium a overmuch much analyzable process than it needed to be, and I was near worrying astir whether my betterment would beryllium impacted arsenic a result.

“We’ve got to get amended arsenic a wellness and attraction strategy astatine joining up those services to assistance radical get good and enactment well.”