Friday 30 November 2012

Rooting out poor healthcare


This month saw the publication of  ‘Patient Stories’ by the national charity, Patients Association. It includes testimony from relatives of patients who have experienced unacceptably poor care.
The CQC has been working with the charity to make sure concerns about poor care raised with Patients Association are shared quickly and acted on where necessary by the healthcare regulator.
Information from members of the public about the care they receive is valuable information to the CQC, helping them to make informed decisions about when, where and what to inspect.
It you have an experience you would like to share, you can contact the CQC through their website, by telephone or by email to report your experiences of the care you have received. The regulator is hoping to  reach more people with recent experiences of hospitals, care homes and care in the home.Visit http://www.cqc.org.uk/public for more information.
The Patients Association receives over 8,000 thousand calls from people about their experiences of care every year. Between March and September this year, the charity passed on concerns relevant to the work  the CQC carry out from people who contacted its Helpline. Many concerns they received via the Patients Association led to urgent, unannounced inspections.
The CQC want to continue working with the Patients Association, and others, in this way. The next phase of their work will focus on the experiences of elderly people.

(Image: Fletcher Prince, Flickr)

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