Latest figures (from May 2015) reveal that more than 80% of GP practices and nearly 60% of services in adult social care are rated as either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’. However, only 38% of hospitals and NHS Trusts have achieved that rating.
The CQC has not yet finished inspecting all providers under its “tough, rigorous” new rating system, introduced last year.
Inspections of all the 25,000 adult social care services – which includes 324 hospice services – are due to be completed by September 2016.
On Saturday, it was reported that of the 37 hospices that have been inspected by the CQC to date, 10 were awarded an outstanding rating and a further 24 awarded a good rating.
Andrea Sutcliffe, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care, said: “It is very encouraging that over 90% of hospices are proving to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ so far. This is just what we should expect and what people certainly deserve at the end of their lives.
“Success starts with strong leaders who motivate, value and support skilled staff to go the extra mile in sensitively caring for every single person as an individual.”
Indeed, today’s report also identified strong leadership as a key factor among institutions rated as either good or outstanding; 94% of those institutions were also rated good or outstanding for their leadership.
At the other end of the scale, 84% of institutions rated inadequate also had rating of inadequate for leadership.
The report also identified safety a big problem for many services: 13% of hospitals, 10% of adult social care providers and 6% of primary medical services were rated inadequate for safety.
Despite the concerns, the report highlighted a number of cases of good practice and the majority of people in England do receive good care.
The report highlights one NHS trust which had been rated outstanding and had displayed exemplary practice in end of life care. “Patients identified as needing end of life care were prioritised,” it states. “Rapid discharge was ensured to their preferred place of care within six hours.”
Commenting on the report, David Behan, chief executive of the CQC, said: “The health and social care sector is facing an unprecedented level of challenge – so it’s encouraging that our findings show that the majority of people are receiving good or outstanding care. We have found dedicated staff working hard to treat people with care, compassion and dignity.
“However, we have also found a wide variation in the quality of care people receive. Alongside good care we have seen examples of poor and unacceptable care and we rated 7% of care as inadequate. A key concern has been the safety of the care – a failure to learn when things go wrong, or not having the right number of staff in place with the right skills.
“Where people are not receiving the quality of care they deserve, we will demand action – and we are now able to demonstrate that half of services have improved following re-inspection. Some services may need further support to improve, and we will continue to work with partners to ensure this happens.”
The report is available to download on the CQC website.
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