CQC: combative, querulous, crushing

The CQC brings ‘fear and panic’, and can push primary care staff to consider resignation — even when the eventual outcome is positive. Continuing our investigation into the dire impact of a CQC inspection, GPs who have undergone the ordeal explain why the system needs urgent reform Splashed across the front page of the Shropshire Star was a story to strike fear into the hearts of patients. ‘Nearly one in six GP surgeries in Shropshire are to be fast-tracked for new Government inspections next year after concerns emerged about patient care,’ it begins. Below was a list of 11 practices that had been earmarked through CQC (Care Quality Commission) intelligent monitoring as being of ‘highest perceived concern’. Among them was the Belvidere Medical Practice in Shrewsbury. The Belvidere, like more than a quarter of practices in Shropshire, was rated ‘outstanding’ by inspectors who visited the following summer. This news also made the Shropshire Star but, funnily enough, it did not get such prominent placing as when the original list was published in November 2014. It is just one of the reasons why Mary McCarthy (pictured below), a GP at the practice and Shropshire local medical committee chair, loathes intelligent monitoring, which she considers neither intelligent nor good at monitoring.   Assumptions ‘At best the data is misleading. At worst it’s inaccurate,’ she says. ‘And it’s all part of ...
Source: BMA News - Category: UK Health Source Type: news