The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published the first issue of its quarterly Market Report, highlighting key trends in England’s health and social care services.
The overall findings of the report (based on the results of inspections of more than 14,000 services) showed that almost three quarters of services were meeting all the Government standards, while just over a quarter of services were not meeting at least one standard – requiring an action plan for improvement. In 1% of services, the CQC found serious concerns that led the organisation to take urgent action. The inspection data highlighted some common issues of poorer performance across a number of the different health and social care sectors:
• Management of medicines (17% of all locations inspected were not meeting the relevant standard). The CQC said that it was seeing a worrying number of examples where safe management of medicines was being compromised, often by a lack of information given either to those taking the medicines, or those caring for them.
• Record keeping (15% of all locations inspected were not meeting the standard). Issues ranged from records being incomplete or not up-to-date; not kept securely or confidentially; or not showing that risks to people had been identified and were being managed appropriately.
• Staffing (11% of all locations inspected were not meeting one or both of the two main staffing standards). Issues to do with staffing emerged as a key driving factor in many instances of non-compliance, both in terms of the numbers of staff available and the support given to do their job.
The CQC warned that non-availability of temporary staff and organisations leaving vacancies open for a number of months – particularly for qualified staff – could lead to compromises in the quality of care given to people, as well as impacting on staff training and supervision. Commenting on the CQC Market report, Dr Peter Carter, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) chief executive and general secretary, said: “It is shocking that more than one in four locations inspected in this report have failed to meet even essential standards of quality and safety. “We are reassured that the CQC has taken action to address these failings; nevertheless, this presents a long overdue wakeup call for the Government. Those locations in question must be brought up to standard as a matter of urgency. “It is highly welcomed and significant that, for the first time, this type of report shines a light on staffing levels and the effect of inadequate staffing on patient care. For the past two years, the RCN’s Frontline First campaign has been highlighting job cuts and the direct risk this poses to patient safety. Alongside this we have been making persistent calls for a system that provides guaranteed safe staffing levels.”
