In this bulletin:
- CQC:
- New Monitoring Approach
- COVID-19 Insight – Learning Disabilities
- Mythbuster of the Week – Prioritising Home Visits
CQC: New Monitoring Approach
The CQC is making some changes to how they regulate providers and have just started piloting changes in how they monitor services, before rolling these out to more services from July, and eventually all services.
They will carry out regular reviews, and where the information they have does not find evidence to indicate the rating or quality at a service needs to be reassessed, they will publish a short statement on the profile page on the CQC website. This will inform the public and people who use services, that this review has taken place and that the CQC had no concerns based on the information they held at that time. The CQC will also communicate this with the provider by email prior to the public statement being published.
The CQC currently plans to carry out this review each month, and they will also carry out some sampling of services to check that that monitoring activity is consistent with CQC inspectors’ findings by carrying out an inspection, either by telephone or by making an on-site visit.
However, they are likely to undertake an immediate on-site inspection for services where they believe people may be at an increased risk of poor quality care.
CQC: COVID-19 Insight – Learning Disabilities
The CQC has published its latest COVID-19 Insight report which focuses on care for people with a learning disability. People with a learning disability are more vulnerable to coronavirus, due to an increased risk of respiratory illnesses and a higher prevalence of asthma, among other health concerns.
Therefore, CQC inspectors are likely to explore what the impact of COVID-19 has been on people with a learning disability living in the community, particularly how the introduction of lockdowns and social distancing affected people’s ability to access the care they need, including GPs.
Where possible, they will be looking for examples of good practice where partnership working with people and between health and social care has made a difference and improved outcomes for people.
CQC: Mythbuster of the Week
This week’s CQC mythbuster is GP mythbuster 71: Prioritising home visits – 25 May 2021.
In this mythbuster, the CQC focuses on good practice for GP practices having systems in place to triage and prioritise home visits, with particular consideration of COVID-19 prevalence, other workload and workforce factors.
NHS England issued a patient safety alert in 2016 to raise awareness of the need to have a system in place to assess whether a home visit is clinically necessary, and the urgency of need for medical attention.
CQC inspectors will expect to see evidence of a process for home visits, especially for delegation of home visits to non-medical HCPs, including an audit of:
- Clinical decision-making
- Prescribing decisions when relevant and
- A system for escalation to a senior clinician when necessary
They may also look at how the practice:
- Manages and prioritises home visits
- Recognises a deteriorating patient
- Works with other professionals
- Manages care planning, referrals and investigations
- Has processes and systems in place to monitor patient safety through reporting patient safety incidents
- How they learn from patient safety incidents and significant events
A full list of CQC tips and mythbusters by latest update can be found on the CQC website:
To help practices meet these requirements, in the QCS system there is a Home Visiting Policy and Procedure, an audit template and a Significant Event register.