Dr K Patel and representatives from Bury Clinical Commissioning Group will report at the meeting. Reports will be sent to follow.
Minutes:
Members of the Committee considered a verbal presentation from Stefan Verstraelen, Inspection Manager, CQC. The verbal presentation contained the following information:
The purpose of the CQC is to make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve. The role is to monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find, including performance ratings to help people choose care.
The CQC ask five key questions of all services:
Is it safe?
Is it effective?
Is it caring?
Is it responsive?
Is it well lead?
There are three phases to the inspection process; Pre-inspection, which includes provider information returns, intelligence monitoring and recruitment of the inspection team. The Inspection; which will include core services, five key questions, key lines of inquiry and visits to clinical areas as well as focus groups and interviews. Thirdly, post inspection, which includes the report, the regulatory (enforcement arm) and rating.
There is a four point scale for rating core services and providers: Outstanding, Good, requires Improvement and Inadequate. The CQC will consider taking enforcement action if providers are not meeting the regulations, for example: issuing requirement notices or warning notices, imposing conditions, placing a provider in special measures,issuing simple cautions and/or fines and prosecuting cases where people are harmed or placed in danger of harm.
Those present were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised:
In response to a Member’s question, the Inspection Manager reported that the CQC can, were deemed appropriate to do so, carry out a focused inspection visit, concentrating on one area or core service. In deciding to do a focused visit the CQC would weigh up, the concerns raised, the purpose of the visit and the impact or consequences of any such visit. The Inspection Manager reported that the CQC can, if required, be in attendance within hours of concerns being raised.
With regards to the key question, is an organisation caring? The Inspection Manager reported that the CQC would gather evidence via a variety of methods, such as; using intelligence from the Family and Friends test, feedback from focus groups, speaking with patients and their relatives/carers, as well as observing how the staff interact with patients while conducting the inspection visits.
In response to concerns raised with regards to the CQC identifying any themes or trends, the Inspection Manager reported that the biggest theme at the current time is a seemingly national shortage of staff/recruitment problems.
If a provider is found to have breached a regulation, the CQC will raise their concerns with the provider immediately and ask them to confirm how they plan to address the issues raised. The CQC works with providers and partnership organisations, such as NHS Improvement, to resolve any statutory breaches and encourage improvement.
In response to a Member’s question with regards to timescales, the Inspection Manager reported that if a breach is highlighted during an inspection visit then the inspector would inform the staff involved and the Senior Leadership at the Trust immediately. The timescale for implementation would vary dependent on the issue. If patient safety is found to be compromised, immediate actions will be implemented to assure patient safety, whilst if, for example, not all staff have received mandatory training then the CQC would allow a longer period for the Trust to become compliant.
The Inspection Manager reported that each provider will have a Registered Manager that is in contact for the CQC within the Trust. The CQC will liaise with the provider on a periodic basis (for example: monthly weekly or even daily basis), dependent on the severity of the issues identified.
If a provider begins to show significant improvement, then the CQC may decide to re-inspect, for example,three, six or nine months after an initial inspection visit, to re-evaluate the Trust’s rating.
In response to a Member’s question, the CQC Inspection Manager reported that the principles that underpin an inspection visit would be the same for any institution. While inspecting a nursing home the inspection team would pay particular attention to the caring and safeguarding elements of the provision. The CQC will look at providers as a whole and can identify specific issues that may be specific to providers that may operate several homes.
In conclusion, the Inspection Manager reported that he would like to continue to work with and meet with the scrutiny committee and would be happy to attend meetings on a regular basis.
It was agreed:
1. The CQC Inspection Manager be thanked for his attendance.