Today (22 October) marks the start of first independent (private) hospitals to be inspected under the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) new approach.
During a two day inspection, a team will visit Spire Southampton Hospital in Hampshire to look at a number of core services including: surgery, medical care, critical care, children and young people’s care and outpatients and diagnostics.
Inspectors will also spend one day at the London Welbeck Hospital looking at surgical and outpatient services.
The teams on both inspections will include clinicians from the NHS and the independent sector, CQC inspectors and members of the public who are “experts by experience”.
The first inspections under the new approach will allow us to test out our new model in different independent hospital settings. CQC will expect to receive equivalent information about performance to that it receives from NHS hospitals.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: “The first inspections at Spire Southampton and London Welbeck hospitals are the starting point for CQC to hold the independent sector to the same standards as the NHS.
“As we have seen in the NHS, these new-style inspections will allow us to get under the skin of the organisation to give us a much more detailed picture of independent hospital care in England than ever before.
“We are significantly increasing public access to information on independent healthcare, which is good news for people who use services, as it will help people to make informed decisions about their care.”
Professor Sir Mike Richards has identified a further six independent hospitals to be inspected by the end of December 2014. We have selected these as they vary in size, the range of specialties and services offered, risk and ownership. The six are:
- Baddow Hospital, Essex
- BMI Mount Alvernia, Surrey
- The Lister Hospital, London
- Nuffield Health Tees Hospital, County Durham
- Oaklands Hospital, Salford
- Shepton Mallett NHS Treatment Centre, Somerset
Each inspection seeks to answer five questions about services: are they safe, caring, effective, well-led and responsive to people’s needs? All independent healthcare hospital providers will receive full ratings from April 2015. The ratings are: outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.
Where there are failures in care, Sir Mike will highlight what needs to be addressed and will ask the hospitals to make sure a clear programme is put in place to deal with any problems.
Ends
For media enquiries, call the CQC press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours or out of hours on 07917 232 143.
For general enquiries, call 03000 61 61 61.
Find out more
Read reports from our previous inspections at the Spire Southampton Hospital and the London Welbeck Hospital.