The Care Quality Commission has “lost its way” with inspections of care homes, hospitals and other facilities years out of date, its new chief executive has said.
Sir Julian Hartley said an IT system introduced by the regulator had been “a complete failure in terms of what it set out to achieve”, and he promised a review into the problems.
The CQC is the body that monitors and inspects all health and adult social care providers in England to ensure safety and quality standards.
Most of its assessment reports include an overall rating and there are four given to health and social care services: outstanding, good, requires improvement, and inadequate.
The Health and Social Care Committee heard last month that concerns being flagged to the CQC by healthcare staff and members of the public were going months without a response, with a backlog of about 5,000 notifications.
Sir Julian also told MPs that staff believed the IT system rolled out by the regulator last year is not fit for purpose and is preventing them from doing their job.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Sir Julian, 57, said: “If you’re thinking about where to put your mum in a care home, you want to have reliable information that’s up to date.
“Effectively the CQC is not delivering on its operational performance. It’s not delivering for people that use services and patients.”
Sir Julian insisted the CQC’s inspection teams are still doing reliable work, but added: “I’m particularly concerned that as a regulator we’ve not got public confidence in our expertise and our ability to be able to spot risks.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said last July the CQC was “not fit for purpose” and needed “radical reform”.
It came after an independent review identified “significant internal failings” affecting the regulator’s ability to identify poor performance at hospitals, care homes and GP practices.
Sir Julian, who became chief executive in December, said the culture at the CQC had been poor and he stressed “how vital it is to have a positive, open culture and psychological safety within any health and care organisation”.
He said he is adopting a “truth and reconciliation” approach to turn the regulator’s fortunes around, including writing to all staff asking for feedback, and he also wants to appoint four new chief inspectors – one each for hospitals, social care, GPs and mental health – while giving patients a bigger voice.
Reflecting on his own experience with the care system after breaking his neck and arm in a cycling accident in 2011, Sir Julian said: “After I was discharged the cracks between different services became more evident. Getting my pain meds seemed to be much more difficult than it needed to be – and the impact for me, recovering at home with a broken neck, was that I was sometimes in acute pain for fairly long periods.
“Getting my physio sessions sorted out again seemed to be a much more complex process than it needed to be, and I was left worrying about whether my recovery would be impacted as a result.
“We’ve got to get better as a health and care system at joining up those services to help people get well and stay well.”
