MPs scathing over worth of healthcare watchdog

The Care Quality Commission has come under a hail of criticism since it was revealed last year that it failed to respond to whistle-blowers’ warnings of abuse of elderly residents at the Winterbourne View home in Bristol.

Yesterday, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said the commission had been “poorly governed and led” and had focused too heavily on registration of care homes and hospitals, rather than inspections.

The Department for Health, which oversees the CQC, had failed to get a grip on it and took action only after it was clear it had been “struggling for some time”.

Plans for the CQC to take over the functions of watchdogs which regulate fertility treatment and human tissue should not go ahead in 2015 as planned, said the cross-party committee.

It welcomed the department’s announcement of a “pause” for consultation on the proposed transfer of the responsibilities of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and Human Tissue Authority to the CQC.

And it warned that plans to register 10,000 GP practices between September 2012 and April 2013 may reduce the watchdog to little more than a “postbox” role, as surgeries were being asked to assess for themselves whether they were compliant with quality and safety standards.

The MPs said it was “astonishing” that – almost three years after its creation in 2009 – the CQC had not even developed measures by which to judge quality.

It had carried out “far fewer” inspections than planned and the information it provided to the public on the quality of care was “inadequate and does not engender confidence in the care system”, said PAC’s report.

There were “serious concerns about the leadership, governance and culture of the commission”, which had given incorrect information to Parliament, claiming to have completed twice as many inspections and reviews as it really had.

The committee raised concerns about the CQC’s use of “gagging clauses” in severance deals with staff, which prevent them from speaking out in public in a way which could drive improvements.

The MPs called on the commission to re-establish a whistle-blowers’ hotline for staff to report concerns about standards in care homes and hospitals.

Evidence suggested that inspectors, who were expected to cover hospitals, care homes and dentists, were “not given enough training and support to understand fully what constitutes good quality care in sectors where they have no experience”.

Committee chair Margaret Hodge said: “The CQC plays an absolutely vital role in protecting people from poor quality or unsafe care, but it has failed to perform that role effectively.”