17 June 2011
The Care Quality Commission welcomes these proposals published today by the Department of Health. CQC will work with the Department and with stakeholders to ensure any changes are clear and will be writing to all affected providers.
The Commission has asked the Department of Health to extend GP practice registration beyond the current deadline for one year until April 2013. However it is still proposed that all providers whose sole or main purpose is NHS GP out-of-hours services or walk-in centres will still need to be registered by 1 April 2012.
The aim of the delay is to try to improve the process for GPs, to give the Commission more opportunity to embed compliance monitoring in the sectors we already regulate, and to ensure registration is more closely aligned with accreditation schemes.
There are no plans to change the scope of regulation – all NHS primary care medical services will have to register, but the timing of that registration for GP practices may change.
Notes to editors
About the CQC: Snippet for press releases
About the Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.
We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.
We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.
Find out more
More details on the consultation, and how to participate, can be found on the Department of Health website.