Out-of-hours providers in England register with the Care Quality Commission

2 April 2012

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) today (Monday) announces the completion of registration for independent out-of-hours medical services.

All but one of the forty eight providers in this group has now been successfully registered with the Commission and no registered provider has been given any compliance conditions.

In May last year the government agreed to a request from the CQC to delay by one year the registration of primary care services including GPs but because the Commission felt that out-of-hours providers were by their nature a higher risk group, it was decided that they would be registered this year as planned.

During the registration process there has been a range of engagement activities with providers to ensure that they could be successfully registered. This has included site visits, interviews with registered managers and detailed discussions with providers.

Out-of-hours service providers in England must be registered with CQC by law to provide care services. To be registered, providers needed to show they meet the essential standards of quality and safety, which CQC will constantly monitor them against.

Cynthia Bower, CQC’s chief executive, said: “I am pleased to announce that CQC has successfully completed registration of out-of-hours providers in England. We will monitor these services, carrying out inspections and using our enforcement powers to investigate poor care and protect people who use services.

She continued, “We have strived to make the process for this group of registration as streamlined as possible and the lessons learned will greatly aid the work we are doing in registration of all GP practices in England next year.”

From April 2013, it is set to include primary medical care services such as GPs.

Ends

For further information please contact the CQC press office on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.