The Patients Association is working with the Care Quality Commission to empower patients to share their experiences of health and social care

10 Jan 2017 09:58 AM

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has launched new partnerships with a number of national charities to ensure that the views and experiences of people who use services always remain at the heart of its regulation of health and social care in England.

The Patients Association is pleased to be renewing their partnership with the CQC as ‘tell us about your care’ partners.

Anyone can contact the CQC directly to share their concerns and experiences of a health or care service in England (anonymously, if they wish to do so). However the ‘tell us about your care’ partnerships enable organisations to pass on this information to CQC too.  This helps ensure that the CQC can continue to be a responsive regulator that listens to and acts on people’s experiences of care.

The partnership is also an opportunity for The Patients Association to share examples of best practice with the CQC of where high quality and compassionate care is being provided so that others can learn from them.

Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of The Patients Association, said: “We are delighted to be working with the CQC on the ‘tell us about your care’ partnership.  We passionately believe that people should be informed about the national standards of care they are entitled to, and that they feel empowered to ask for these standards of care for themselves or their relatives.

“These standards include:

“All of these standards are fundamental rights that patients have when receiving care and treatment. Unfortunately not everyone’s experiences meet these standards, while on the other hand, some people receive excellent care. Either way, the staff of the The Patients Association would like to hear about your experiences, answer any questions you may have and give you free and impartial advice and guidance. We strongly encourage you to get in touch with our Helpline team on 02084238999 if you have any health or social care related issue or story to tell.”

Chris Day, Director of Engagement at the Care Quality Commission, said: “People’s experiences of care are absolutely vital intelligence to CQC. They help us to identify where care may be falling below the standards we all have a right to expect, and where outstanding care is being provided.

“We share common cause with organisations that work with and represent people who use services in wanting to make sure that our health and social care services provide safe effective compassionate, high-quality care, which is why it’s fantastic to be working with Carers UK, Disability Rights UK, Mind, National Autistic Society, The Patients Association, and the Relatives and Residents Association in this way. They will help us to reach even more people who may have information that can allow us to take action against poor care, encourage improvement, and to celebrate great services.’’

CQC announces new partnerships with charities and patient groups

Notes for Editors

Contact our Helpline for advice and guidance on how to share your experience or for assistance in completing the forms by visiting https://www.patients-association.org.uk/helpline/  or phoning 02084238999.

You can learn more about sharing your care experiences with the CQC by visiting: http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/people%E2%80%99s-experience-care-what-we-want-know-and-why

The CQC record information on the following:

    hospitals
    care homes
    home care agencies
    hospice services
    GP practices, including walk-in centres and out-of-hours services
    dentists
    community care and support services, such as district nurses and health visitors
    clinics providing services such as family planning, slimming and some types of cosmetic surgery
    community mental health services
    ambulance services.

There are some care services that the CQC don’t cover, including children’s social care, which is covered by Ofsted.