CQC to provide more community care inspections

Posted 23/12/2013

Health services provided in the community are to be inspected more often by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The inspections have been announced following the movement of medical services out of hospital settings. The inspections will investigate the quality health services delivered in services for children and families, adults with long-term conditions, adults requiring community inpatient services and people receiving end-of-life care.

These inspections will be carried out by large teams of specialists such as expert CQC inspectors, clinicians and experts with the requisite experience in the service area. The inspection programme will be led by the CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, who said:

“Community health care services have an increasingly important role in people’s lives, particularly in terms of providing care to people close to where they live. We have not given enough specific attention to community health services in the past, so I am determined to strengthen our oversight of the sector and develop a picture of the quality of care that is so important in many people’s lives. I will be giving ratings to community service providers so people can be clear about the quality of services and to help drive improvement.

“Where we can, we will align our inspections of community health services with other sectors we regulate, such as community mental health or learning disability services, substance misuse services, primary care services and acute hospitals.”

Sharon Allison, a medical injury lawyer at Ashtons Legal, says: “As the impetus is to try and move as much care back into the community as possible, it is important to ensure that standards of care remain high. Community care inspections will help to ensure that standards of care are seamless which is of course, what it should be.”