Mystery surrounds departure of CQC head
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- Published: Saturday, 17 March 2012 12:27
- Written by News Editor
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| The resignation of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) chief executive Cynthia Bower follows a critical review by the Department of Health, despite denials that the two facts are linked. Ms Bower has agreed to remain in post until autumn 2012 to allow for an ‘appropriate handover’. She will continue to collect a salary until she leaves the CQC, but there will be no final ‘lump sum’ payment. |
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In a statement Cynthia Bower said: “After almost four years leading CQC, I feel that it is now time to move on. The process of setting up an entirely new system of regulation has been intensely challenging - but we have accomplished an enormous amount. We have merged three organisations, registered 40,000 provider locations and brought virtually the entire health and social care network under one set of standards, which focus on the needs of people who use services.'
The Department of Health's Performance and Capability review however paints a different picture. It concluded that the CQC had ‘underestimated’ the scale of the task of registering providers, and ‘could have done more to manage risks during the early years of the organisation’s operation’.
The review said the role of the regulator had ‘not been as clear as it needs to be to health and care providers, patients and the public’ – despite recognising it had made improvements over the past nine months by increasing inspection staffing and focusing more on its core duties of registering and inspecting healthcare providers.
The DH review made a series of recommendations for the CQC to drive improvement, including:
•The CQC must become more strategic and set out more clearly what success looks like.
•The Board should be strengthened with the appointment of additional members and that there should be clearer arrangements between the Board and the Executive to ensure that the Board is holding the operation of the CQC to account.
•The CQC should build an evidence base for its regulatory model to demonstrate and ensure confidence in its effectiveness.
•Frontline inspectors should have greater access to individuals with professional experience, such as doctors, nurses or social care experts. There should also be more consistency in how inspections are carried out and there should be enough inspectors to meet future demand.
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