A significant number of NHS hospitals, care homes and dental practices are falling short of recommended standards of care, a new report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) reveals.
According to BBC News, 27% of the 14,000 NHS healthcare institutions that the regulator inspected fail to deliver adequate care, with staff shortages and poor drug management being among the most common flaws.
Overall, more than one third of all institutions for which the CQC is responsible have been inspected. The report points out that maternity wards have emerged as a particularly weak spot, due to increasing birth rates.
In the majority of cases where inspectors noticed problems, managers were ordered to start working on strategies to improve care. However, there were 130 instances of seriously substandard care, which required immediate action. In extreme cases the CQC even had to impose restrictions on some services to make sure patients’ well-being and lives are not in danger.
Some of the key findings in the report include the fact that 22% of all NHS sites fail to meet all requirements. The proportion is higher among care homes and home care services, where 28% were found to be lacking in terms of care standards. Dental practices proved to be the best performers, with CQC recommendations being issued to just 12%
Key areas that need improvement concern record keeping, drug handling, staff shortages and hygiene. According to Jill Finney, the regulator’s deputy chief executive, similar reports will be issued every three months to keep track of NHS healthcare institutions and the way they are working towards improvement.
Healthcare should of cosrue be organised (or rather self-organised) along the lines of veterinary practices. They are effectively a shop you go to to get your pet fixed. It is not free (nothing should be), and vets have to pass various examinations and so forth. All perfectly rational and simple to boot. A sign at how effective healthcare is for non humans is that no one discusses it. The fact that we are still discussing healthcare implies strongly that, as per welfare generally, we are simply not facing up to hard reality and doing something meaningful about it. There is simply no plausible argument for healthcare to be centrally controlled. It is some kind of imaginary safety blanket for Linus’s on the Left.
Talking to an ex-ward sister frined, who’s worked here and abroad, she found the same problem wherever she went in the fact that nurses have to eat too. So lunchtime was when she had the lowest level of staff avaiable to her. Bring back the old Nightingale wards, where an eagle-eyed Sister controlled every aspect of her domain