EPSO Contact person Neil Prime
Member since 2008
1. COUNTRY/REGION: ENGLAND
Website of the supervisory organisation: www.cqc.org.uk
Is this website in English or partly in English? Yes
Contactperson(s)
o Name and function Neil Prime, Head of Analytics
Address Finsbury Tower, 103-105 Bunhill Row, London UK EC1Y 8TG.
Email neil.prime@cqc.org.uk
Telephone number +44 20 7448 9357
Mobile phone N/A
2. THE STRUCTURE OF THE SUPERVISORY ORGANISATION
o The Head of the Supervisory Organisation (name and function)
David Behan CBE, Chief Executive Officer
o Size of the Supervisory Organisation:
CQC has responsibility for regulation of (approximate numbers): 400 NHS trusts (public sector healthcare providers and commissioners), 3500 independently owned and run healthcare providers and 30,000 adult social care providers and commissioners.
o Number of people working in the organisation
Approximately 2000 people work for CQC. Many are field staff based regionally, with office based-staff divided between regional bases across England.
o Relation with the Department of Health
Arms length but 100% funded by Department of Health.
o Web address
www.dh.gov.uk
3. THE SCOPE OF THE SUPERVISORY ORGANISATION(s)
o Is there supervision on health care in general?
The Healthcare Commission regulates:
· All NHS public sector service
o Acute services (hospitals)
o ambulance services
o Dental practices
o mental health
o primary care
o services for people with learning difficulties.
· All independently owned and provided healthcare services
· All adult social care settings, including care homes and domiciliary care
. from April 2013 we will supervise GP practices
o Is there supervision on hospitals?
Yes.
o Is there supervision on other health care institutions like nursing homes/
convalescent homes?
Yes.
o Is there supervision on the production and the use of medicines?
The use of medication is covered by the CQC regulatory process (particularly misuse and medication errors), but production is not.
o Is there a supervisory relation with health care professionals?
No
4. METHODS OF INSPECTATION OR SUPERVISION
o What methods of inspection or supervision are used in your country/region?
Regulation by CQC is based around provider registration. All organisations providing health or adult social care have to register with CQC. Registration is contingent on each organisation meeting a set of minimum care criteria.
Registration is monitored on an ongoing basis; other quality measures are also monitored periodically.
o Other information about the methods of inspection in your country /region
In addition to registration and ongoing assessment, CQC also undertakes specialty, condition or issue specific reviews and studies of care.
Finally, CQC also has the power to investigate serious service failure in health and social care.
5. WHAT IS THE COMPETENCE OF THE SUPERVISORY ORGANISATION IN YOUR COUNTRY?
o Is the supervisory organisation entitled to use compulsory measures
(sanction/repression/enforcement)?
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, the Care Quality Commission has a number of new enforcement powers to deal with underperforming services - to inspect and investigate, to issue a statutory warning notice, to issue a financial penalty notice in lieu of prosecution and, in the most serious cases, to prosecute or suspend registration. In the most serious cases, the Commission can prosecute or cancel registration.
o Is the supervisory organisation entitled to take precautions and implement measures to prevent accidents or incidents?
Safety aspects are covered within the registration process as an integral part of care delivery. There are, however, other regulators that deal specifically with accident and incident prevention.
o Does the supervisory organisation have the authority to close institutions
Yes, in extreme circumstances.
o or stop non proper healthcare?
Yes, where there is a risk to safety.
6. INTERESTING ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS IN YOUR COUNTRY/REGION
A key tool for CQC is the Quality and Risk Profile (QRP). We will hold a Quality and Risk Profile for each registered provider that will gather all we know about a provider in one place. They will enable us to assess where risks lie and prompt front line regulatory activity, such as inspection. They will support teams to make robust judgements about the quality of services. These Profiles will develop over time as the information we hold about a provider increases.
The Intelligence directorate of CQC is developing an automated system that should permit the use of large amounts of qualitative data. This will code and add sentiment to qualitative data from the public etc to enable its use in determining how well care is provided.
