Together with NHS Improvement we have today started consulting on plans to fully implement the process that both organisations will use to report on how NHS non-specialist acute trusts are using their resources to provide high quality, efficient and sustainable care.
We are asking for your views on our proposed approach to working with NHS Improvement to reflect their assessment of trusts’ use of resources in published CQC inspection reports and trust-level ratings.
We are also seeking feedback on how we can best combine the rating that will be awarded for use of resources with CQC’s five trust-level quality ratings, and how we will generate new combined ratings at the trust level.
NHS Improvement began its use of resources assessments at non-specialist acute trusts in October 2017 using the use of resources assessment framework and methodology which was developed following public and stakeholder feedback and testing at a number of acute trusts earlier this year. We are currently piloting how we work with NHS Improvement to incorporate the findings of their assessments with our judgements on quality.
Effective use of resources is fundamental to enable health and care providers to deliver and sustain safe high-quality services for patients. The responses from this consultation will be used together with feedback we receive from trusts during the current pilot phase to shape our final agreed approach.
The consultation will run from 8 November 2017 to 10 January 2018.
This work is part of the wider changes we are making to the way we monitor, inspect and rate NHS trusts, which includes more inspections of the specific core services that individual trusts provide and fewer comprehensive inspections of whole trusts, as well as working more closely with our partners to agree a ‘shared view of quality’.
Members of the public, healthcare providers and other stakeholders are invited to take part in the consultation online.