CQC warns on registration

The Care Quality Commission has warned that many trusts have significant work ahead of them to improve their performance, if they are to register with the regulator next year.

The warning comes as the CQC publishes its NHS Annual Health Check, which gives performance ratings to all 392 acute, primary care and specialist trusts in England.

Although more organisations than ever before are rated “excellent” or “good” – and many are commended for significant improvement in financial management – there was a significant fall in the number of acute trusts rated “excellent”, with more rated “fair.”

The health check assessment measures performance in the NHS in key priority areas set by the government. As of next year, all trusts will need to register with the CQC to legally function.

The CQC said that compliance with core standards is a good indication of whether a trust is ready for registration. Although overall compliance with standards has increased from 95% to 96%, only about half of trusts fully met all core standards.

The Commission said that the increase was mainly due to better results earned by primary care trusts. More than half (53%) were rated “excellent” or “good” for the first time when complying with core standards for the full assessment year.

However, results declined in the acute sector with 59% fully meeting the criteria this year compared to 69% in 2007-08.

Cynthia Bower, CQC, chief executive, said: “The NHS has performed well on quality, which is good news in the face of a rigorous assessment.

“But it is clear that some trusts are struggling and that some issues are proving tough nuts to crack. My biggest concern is those trusts are ‘weak’ and persistently ‘weak’ or ‘fair.’ They must do better for their patients.

“I want to ring the alarm bell in the boardrooms of these organisations. Next year, all trusts must register with us to legally function. It is clear that many have significant work to do and a short time in which to do it.”

As in previous years, the health check identifies record management as one of the weakest areas of NHS performance.

It finds that C09, which requires organisations to have a systematic and planned approach to record management, is still one of the six indicators with the lowest compliance rate, with only 88.3% compliance. However, compliance has risen by 3% over last year’s rate of 85.2%.

Also at the bottom end of the spectrum are: making sure that staff participate in mandatory training programmes; minimising risks associated with the use of medical devices; and protecting children by following national child protection guidelines.

The report also outlines the standards with the highest annual decline in compliance rates. They include C01b, which requires organisations to ensure patient safety notices, alerts and other communications concerning patient safety are acted upon. Compliance with this standard has fallen 2% on last year.

Link: Care Quality Commission