The CQC has admitted to being significantly behind on reviews into major issues of concern that have been raised about NHS providers.
CQC chief executive Sir Julian Hartley was speaking in front of the health and social care committee yesterday, in light of the damning review into the regulator published last year, prompting immediate concerns from the committee about ‘significant safeguarding issues’.
Sir Julian said that the CQC has a backlog of 5,000 notifications of concern, including provider notifications of ‘major issues and incidents and changes’ as well as notifications of ‘major issues of concern’ from staff and members of the public.
Sir Julian told the committee: ‘We have about 5,000 of those and we receive about 800,000 a year.
‘There’s around 5,000 in that backlog that need working through and that have not been responded to within the 10-day time frame.
‘Those need to be fast-tracked, and they are categorised into different priority levels of urgency, and that is something which we are getting weekly updates on in terms of how quickly we are able to work through those.’
In response Jen Craft, Labour MP for Thurrock, prompted Sir Julian saying that there is ‘a potential there for quite significant safeguarding issues’, adding that he could ‘appreciate’ the ‘level of shock’ from committee members.
Sir Julian admitted that some of them ‘do go back months’, with the oldest cases with ‘no review’ being from 30 November 2023, and the oldest cases with ‘no action’ being from 19 August 2024.
The CQC said it will write to the committee ‘to clarify exactly where we are with that’.
Last year, a major review into the CQC commissioned by the Government confirmed ‘significant failings’ in the way the watchdog operates. The damning review found that CQC ‘lost its credibility’ within the services and providers it inspects, with a ‘lack of consistency’ and transparency observed in CQC ratings of GP practices.
Another review, carried out by the CQC itself, at the same time found that a ‘fundamental reset of the organisation is needed’ and that the regulator ‘will never be able to deliver on its objectives’ if the current structure is maintained.
Following the findings, the RCGP called for a temporary pause of CQC routine inspections of GP practices, although it stressed inspections of practices where patient safety concerns have been raised must continue.
The RCGP also called for an end to ‘simplistic’ one-word ratings currently used in CQC inspections.
The former chief executive of the CQC, Ian Trenholm, stepped down in June, with Sir Julian appointed to the role as of October.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse.
