CQC Review of Care Home Services: Report Now Available

The findings for the CQC review of home care services was released last week. The report shows that good care is being delivered, but a minority of people are affected by late or missed calls, lack of continuity of care workers, poor care planning and more.

The CQC began their review of home care services in April 2012. Throughout the review, they found that 74% of the 250 services inspected are meeting all five of the National Standards checked. 

However, there are concerns around the following areas.

• On many occasions, people received no prior notice that they would be visited by a care worker they didn’t know.
• Visits were often delayed or sometimes cancelled without prior notice.
• Risks associated with a person’s care or medical conditions had not been assessed and care plans had not been updated for several years.
• Some services did not have clear systems to monitor the quality and information in care plans.

David Behan, CQC Chief Executive, said: “People have a right to expect to be treated as an individual, to be able to exercise choice, and to make sure their carers are aware of their specific care needs. We found plenty of evidence of this however we also found elements of poor care which happen too often.”

Services must now work more closely with commissioners to improve care, find solutions to these common problems and put systems in place to monitor the impact of missed or late visits.

You can read more about the CQC's findings and other recommendations in the full report on the CQC website.

If you are a health care professional and would like help with your CQC application or registration, visit us at Words Worth Reading Ltd.

Source: www.cqc.org.uk

Image: nany mata, Flickr