CQC responds to coroner's inquest and Department of Health's review of out-of-hours services

4 February 2010

Christine Braithwaite, head of investigation and enforcement at the CQC responds to the coroner's inquest on the death of David Gray.

"The death of David Gray was a tragedy. It should not have happened and such an incident must not happen again. The coroner has clearly highlighted what went wrong. Take Care Now, and the PCTs that commission its services, must learn the lessons.

"We are already looking at Take Care Now's current procedures as part of our review, as well as contractual and monitoring arrangements at the NHS trusts that buy its services. Any relevant information arising from the inquest will feed into our work, and we will of course take the coroner's views and final verdict into account. Our enquiries are nearing completion, and we will be reporting in full on the findings in due course."

CQC respond to the Department of Health review of GP out-of-hours services

The Care Quality Commission's chief executive, Cynthia Bower, said: "It is absolutely critical that NHS trusts put monitoring of the safety of out-of-hours services higher up their agenda.

"Our work has suggested that the quality of monitoring has been variable.

"The wide-ranging recommendations in this report will help address these concerns. Commissioners and providers of out-of-hours services across the country must implement them swiftly for the benefit of local people.

"CQC's enquiries into out-of-hours provider Take Care Now are nearing completion. We will be reporting our full findings in due course and we will make further comments on this issue at that time."

Notes to editors