Policy responses and statements
Background: The journey of a patient through the healthcare system is not as straightforward as it once was. Many more patients are receiving care and treatment from a combination of public and independent healthcare services. The Healthcare Commission's assessments must assure that standards are met at all stages of this journey. A principal reason for setting up the Healthcare Commission was to create a single system for regulation of NHS and independent healthcare sectors. In 2005/2006, the Commission introduced a new system for assessing the NHS - the annual health check - and started to make independent sector inspections more risk based, within annual visits. Now the Commission needs to further modernise the way it regulates healthcare in the independent sector so as to align it with the NHS assessment of core standards and other elements of the annual health check. The Commission's proposals are designed to create a framework within which it will make progress towards a single system of assessment. This approach enables it to phase in change at a manageable pace and to ensure that learning takes place in healthcare in both the independent sector and the NHS, as the annual health check is itself new and subject to evaluation. The consultation asks questions about the proposed approach.
Download this consultation response as a .pdf
Copies of this response are available from: Lesley Lockhart, Tel: 0131 225 7324 ext 608 [2 March 2006]
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