Consultation launched on
the registration of health and adult social care providers
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release (2008/03/25 MG) issued by The Government News Network
on 25 March 2008
The Department of
Health today launched a consultation to seek views on the
registration of health and adult social care providers, including
the regulation of primary care services to ensure patients
continue to receive safe, good quality care closer to home.
'A consultation on the framework for the registration of
health and adult social care providers' puts forward
proposals on which services will be required to register with the
new regulator and the requirements that they will need to meet.
This will include the registration of primary care services,
which now provide more complex services to a high volume of
patients in community settings. This received widespread support
in the 2006 consultation 'The future regulation of health and
adult social care in England'.
Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said:
"More services than ever before are now available in
GPs' surgeries and community settings, such as those
traditionally provided in hospitals, so it is essential that
patients know that these services are safe and are of good quality.
"That is why we are proposing that primary care services are
covered by the new regulator and are seeking views on how we best
achieve this."
Although GPs and other healthcare professionals are individually
registered by their professional governing bodies, the services
provided in primary care and community settings are becoming more
complex. In order to ensure that regulation is proportionate and
avoids duplication, the consultation document asks how a new
registration system would interact with the existing systems for
monitoring GP performance, such as monitoring by the Primary Care
Trust and performance reviews, to minimise the burden of
regulation on primary care services.
Notes to editors
1. The consultation will be published at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_083625
2. The Health and Social Care Bill, currently passing through
Parliament, will establish the Care Quality Commission (CQC), a
new regulator for health and adult social care services. From
April 2009, the CQC will bring together the experience and
expertise of the three existing regulators - the Healthcare
Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) and
the Mental Health Act Commission - meaning a more consistent
approach to regulation at a time when more and more services are
crossing traditional health and social care boundaries.
3. The Care Quality Commission will seek to reduce the burden of
inspection on the frontline reducing the level of duplication and
bureaucracy faced by providers as well as creating a level playing
field across the public and private sectors.
[ENDS]
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Telephone: (Dept
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