Mixed signals from major inspection on the NHS

Three-year investigation by the CQC points to high quality services provided by individual professionals, alongside crucial deficiencies in the system as a whole. 

Care Quality Commission’s State of care in NHS acute hospitals: 2014 to 2016 presents findings from a programme of NHS acute comprehensive inspections. Among the findings, it is highlighted that most hospitals are delivering good quality care and looking after patients well, but trusts have blind spots, tests and treatments suffer from delays, and poor care of life-threatening conditions such as sepsis is frequent.

According to hospital chief inspector Professor Sir Mike Richards, “the NHS now stands on a burning platform. (...) The scale of the challenge that hospitals are now facing is unprecedented - rising demand coupled with economic pressures are creating difficult-to-manage situations that are putting patient care at risk".