NHS patient-safety system to be overhauled
NHS patient-safety system to be overhauled
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The way patient safety is regulated and monitored is to be completely overhauled in England, the health secretary has announced. Wes Streeting said the current system was "overly complex", as he set out a review of six key organisations. It comes as further changes to the way the Care Quality Commission, the regulator of NHS services, operates have been unveiled. The regulator, which inspects 90,000 different services across health and care, has been told to focus much more on key services such as hospitals, GPs and social care, after an interim report, in July, warned it was failing.
Since then, a new chief executive of the CQC - Sir Julian Hartley - has been appointed. He currently leads NHS Providers, which represents senior health leaders, and is expected to take over at the CQC soon. The six organisations to be reviewed are: the CQC
the National Guardian's Office
Healthwatch England
the Health Services Safety Investigations Body
the Patient Safety Commissioner
NHS Resolution The focus will be on how these bodies work together, with the findings feeding into the government's 10-year plan for the NHS, expected in the spring.
Streeting said: "Patient safety is the bedrock of a healthy NHS and social-care system. "That's why we are taking steps to reform the CQC, to root out poor performance and ensure patients can have confidence in its ratings once again. "The government will never turn a blind eye to failure. "An overly complex system of healthcare regulation and oversight is no good for patients. "We will overhaul the system to make it effective and efficient to protect patient safety."
'Lacked focus'
