NHS Confed: We need “fundamental shift” in regulation

The way care is regulated must fundamentally shift, argued the head of the NHS Confederation, Rob Webster said in response to the Care Quality Commission’s(CQC) State of Carereport.

The report provides an assessment of the state of healthcare and adult social care in England, and also highlights significant variation in quality.

Regulators should look at health and care systems – not just individual organisations – to regulate care, Webster advised.

He said: “No organisation is an island so we need a fundamental shift in the way we regulate care.

“A&E performance, for example, is a function of community support, social care and the local people as much as hospital staffing. Regulators should look at health and care systems not just individual organisations.”

The report showed that in adult social care, nearly six out of ten services were rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, and more than nine out of 10 (94%) of the GP services rated as 'good' or 'outstanding' overall were also 'good' or 'outstanding' for their leadership.

Commenting on the report, Nuffield Trust chief executive Nigel Edwards added: "Today’s report lays bare the dilemma facing the NHS: how to maintain essential standards of quality and safety whilst grappling with squeezed finances and staffing problems.

“One of the most concerning findings in the report is that problems in staffing levels were found even in acute trusts that were rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’. This suggests that these problems are systemic across the whole acute hospital sector, as well as social care.”