BMA bemoans health service regulator re-think
pharmafile | November 2, 2007 | News story | |Â Â Â
News that the health service is to get a new watchdog with increased powers has been criticised by the BMA, which says it represents more upheaval to a system already fatigued by change.
The new Care Quality Commission will have the power to inspect hospital wards and shut them down if they fail to tackle infection properly, reflecting a new hardline approach in the wake of recent superbug scandals.
The BMA says it welcomes a tightening up on safety, but says it is concerned that only a few years after the Healthcare Commission was created it will be abolished and replaced with yet another watchdog.
BMA chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum: "The NHS has been suffering from too much reorganisation and, it appears that, as soon as doctors and managers start getting used to one system it's all change."
The Department of Health has pledged the new Care Quality Commission will combine the experience and expertise of the Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health Act Commission.
The commitment to merge the three organisations responsible for regulating healthcare, adult social care and the operation of the Mental Health Act builds on the Health Reform in England: Update and Commissioning framework, published in July 2006.
Ministers said the Care Quality Commission will be able to actively enforce rules on providers of health services and adult social services, rather than simply bring them to the attention of the government.
But the BMA suggested that some measures proposed for the new Care Quality Commission might be too heavy handed.
Dr Meldrum said: "Closing wards and hospitals because of quality and infection control issues should be a very last resort and this situation should be preventable if local trust boards work effectively to ensure that issues such as poor staffing levels and high turnover of patients are addressed. "
The BMA wants to ensure the new system is 'proportionate, transparent, consistent, accountable and targeted, ' he added.
The government's proposals include placing primary care workers within the new regulatory framework, and the BMA said it was keen to work with the government to 'avoid duplication and that they work with the system of professional regulation already in place'.
The NHS Confederation is less apprehensive about the new NHS watchdog, but it did join the BMA in stressing the dangers of too much system reform.
The NHS Confederation is less apprehensive about the new NHS watchdog, but it did join the BMA in stressing the dangers of too much system reform.
"We welcome the creation of a new regulator as a definite move in the right direction, " said Dr Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation.
But she warned: "The new regulator must not signal a 'year zero' approach that discards what has gone before. The annual health check will be only four years old when the Care Quality Commission is established.
"The Healthcare Commission and NHS organisations are really starting to get to grips with this new regime as a means of improving patient care and monitoring performance. "
The Confederation would also like to see the new commission avoid further bureaucratisation of the NHS, and learn from other regulators from other sectors such as Ofcom and the FSA, which both tailor their work according to the type and size of organisation they are assessing.
