Special Measures for failing GPs

Today the CQC has announced plans to introduce a new 'special measures' regime for GP practices. The scheme will see practices offering poor care given deadlines to make improvements – and faced with closure if they fail.

The CQC will begin to introduce special measures for GP practices from October this year. This will coincide with them starting to rate 8,000 NHS GP practices on the basis of whether they are outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

The CQC plans to work closely with NHS England to pilot special measures, in close consultation with the General Medical Council, the Royal College of GPs and others as we develop our approach.

How will it work?

Under the new proposals, when CQC inspectors rate aspects of a GP practice 'inadequate', they'll give the service six months to improve. Practices that fail to make improvements will be put into special measures, after which they will be given a further six months to meet the standards required. At the end of their period in special measures, if the CQC still judges them to be inadequate, they will cancel their CQC registration and their contract with NHS England will be terminated.

In some cases, when they believe poor care is putting patients at risk or that a practice is not capable of improving on its own, the CQC will put the practice straight into special measures.

The plans bring GP practices into line with the other sectors regulated regulate. The CQC recently reported on progress made by the first 11 NHS trusts to be placed in special measures after the regime was adopted by hospitals last year. Last month the CQC announced that a similar scheme would be introduced across the adult social care sector from April next year.

Driving up standards

Professor Field said: "Most GP practices provide good care. We have confirmed this in our pilot inspections so far. But we can't allow those that provide poor care to continue to let their patients have an inadequate service. I want to do all I can to drive up standards in those that are not providing the services people deserve. We need to have a clear framework and a process to respond to those GP practices that are providing inadequate care to ensure that they can't continue to provide inadequate care indefinitely."

"When health and care organisations fail the people to whom they provide care, it's important that failure is identified quickly and the action is to ensure services for people improve. That sits at the heart of special measures."

(Story source, cqc.org.uk)

The NHS have one week...

...to comment on how it will be honest and accountable.

NHS trusts have until next Friday (5 September) to have their say on how they could show they are meeting the government’s new regulations on being open and honest to patients when things go wrong and on making sure they employ directors who are suitable for the roles.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has drafted guidance on how the 162 NHS trusts across England can meet the government’s new ‘duty of candour’ and the ‘fit and proper persons’ regulations.

These will oblige providers to be open and honest when things go wrong and to hold directors to account when care fails people.

NHS trusts will have to make sure they are meeting these two regulations from November, with other providers of health and adult social care following next spring, subject to Parliamentary approval.

Also, NHS trusts have the chance to comment on the CQC’s proposals about how it will use its enforcement powers when the regulator believes that a regulation has been breached and on its wider guidance on how they can meet the new ‘fundamental standards’ of care.
CQC’s guidance will help both NHS trusts to determine whether they are meeting the regulations and, CQC to decide what action to take when they do not.

David Behan, Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission said: "We are consulting on our proposed guidance on how providers can meet the requirements of the new regulations and on how we intend to use our enforcement powers.

"It is essential that CQC uses these new responsibilities well to encourage a culture of openness and to hold providers and directors to account when care fails people.

"We have already started to inspect services against the five key questions that matter most to the people who use them – are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs, and well-led? This helps our inspection teams to identify good care.

"Where our inspection teams identify poor care, this guidance will help us to determine whether there is a breach of regulations and if so, what action to take. In some cases, this will mean we will use our powers to prosecute.

"For providers, this will help them to make applications to register or vary their registration with CQC, and to make sure their services do not fall below acceptable levels."

The consultation for NHS bodies on how they would meet the ‘duty of candour’ and ‘fit and proper person’ requirements will close at midnight on Friday 5 September.

Alongside this, CQC is running a wider consultation on how all providers of health and adult social care can meet all of the new ‘fundamental standards’ of care. This will close on Friday 17 October 2014.

(Story source, CQC Press Release, cqc.org.uk)

New: The WWRL website now has a press release section

Due to the demand for press releases, we are excited to announce that we have added a new page to our website dedicated to PR. 

Having a news-worthy story is a great way to get your company or organisation into the lime light. The most basic means for communicating a news story is through a press release. 

A ‘notice me’ press release needs to be well written, concise, timely, creative and brief. 

Words Worth Reading Ltd can research, write and design them for you. We can even manage the press dissemination of the articles, and feedback response rates. 

Find out more and see some examples of our work by visiting us at www.wordsworthreading.co.uk

Image: Fletcher Prince, Flickr

The August edition of the Words Worth Reading Ltd newsletter is now available to download

The August edition of the Words Worth Reading Ltd newsletter is now available to download.

This month in the Words Worth Reading Ltd office we have been helping clients to maintain compliant with the Information Governance Toolkit with our remote external auditing service. At WWRL we are proud to support a number of charities, this month we have launched the ‘charity of the month’ section of our newsletter to highlight some of the great causes we support. 

To get the latest news about business, healthcare, writing, student life, and to find out what the Words Worth Reading Ltd team have been up to, download this month's newsletter from our website by clicking here.

Published Today: CQC Report on the Management of Controlled Drugs

Today the CQC has published their annual report on the management of controlled drugs, which highlights the need for an increase in the sharing of information.

The report published today is the seventh from the CQC and shows safe arrangements for controlled drugs were maintained despite changes in the law and the structure of the NHS.

The annual report shows the significant progress that has been made in order to improve the management of controlled drugs since the Shipman inquiry ten years ago.

You can read the full report on the CQC page for The safer management of controlled drugs 2013.

Source: www.cqc.org.uk

Image: e-MagineArt.com, Flickr

'Special Measures' Regime Announced for GP Practices This week

This week the CQC announced plans to introduce a new 'special measures' regime for GP practices. The scheme will see practices offering poor care given deadlines to make improvements and if they fail, they could face closure. 

The regime for GP practices will be introduced from October this year. This will coincide with us starting to rate 8,000 NHS GP practices on the basis of whether they are outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate. This system is similar to how Ofsted rates schools. 

The 'special measures' regime aims to improve standards in GP practices across the country. 

Under the new proposals, when inspectors rate aspects of a GP practice as 'inadequate', they will have six months to improve. Practices that fail to make improvements will be put into special measures, after which they will be given a further six months to meet the standards required by the CQC. At the end of their period in special measures, if the practice has been judged to be inadequate their CQC registration and their contract with NHS England will be terminated.

In some cases, when we believe poor care is putting patients at risk or that a practice is not capable of improving on its own, we will put the practice straight into special measures.

The plans will bring GP practices into line with the other sectors regulated by the CQC. The regime was adopted by hospitals last year, and the CQC recently reported on progress made by the first 11 NHS trusts to be placed in special measures. Last month the CQC announced that a similar scheme would be introduced across the adult social care sector from April next year.

Image: KateJones365, Flickr

The Word is Out: A New Festival for 2014

The Word y Gair (The Word is Out) is a festival celebrating words of all kinds, from rap to braille, sign language, poetry, fiction, comic strips, graffiti art, song, performance and more. 

The Word is new to the Festival line up in 2014. 

It is being held within the walls and on the historic quay side of the world heritage site at Conwy, North Wales. Visitors can even go out onto the water with a writer for inspiration! 


The festival takes place between August 15-17, 2014 in Conwy, North Wales. 

Those taking part this year include, National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke, world word expert Professor David Crystal, performance poet Patience Agbabi, Young People's Laureate Martin Daws, poet and author Gladys Mary Coles and bookbinder Paul Delrue. 

You can find out more about this unique festival by clicking here. 

Image: Horia Varlan, Flickr

Ghost stories wanted by Boo Books

The small press independent company, Boo Books, is calling for submissions that would be suitable for its first collection of ghost stories.

The working title of the collection is Christmas Spirits. Ghost stories for this collection do not have to be traditional, and may be widely interpreted, as long as ghosts are a central component. Stories may be up to 5,000 words. There is no minimum word count.

The closing date for submissions is 1 September. The anthology is scheduled to be published in October/November. There is no payment for contributions, but selected authors will receive two complimentary copies of the anthology.

(Story first seen on writers-online.co.uk)

Short Story Competition - Brick Lane Publishing

A new publishing house, 'Brick Lane Publishing' has annouced its latest short story competition - a competition that seeks stories related to London's East End.



Stories may be in any genre, and set in any period, but should capture the diversity of London's East End in some way, shape or form, and must include at least one of the following:

• Culture and romance
• A mystery of some description
• Long-lost family or friends
• Insight and diversity
• Poverty and wealth
• Integration into a new society or setting

All shortlisted stories will be published in a collection. There is no cash prize.

Stories for Brick Lane Publishing's East End Short Story Competition may be up to 5,000 words. The competition is free to enter.

The closing date is the 30th of August 2014.

Annual Performance Report now available for download

Each year, Words Worth Reading Ltd create a concise Performance Report which outlines our customer portfolio and describes customer satisfaction. The 2013 - 2014 report is now available to read via our website.

The report demonstrates a slight increase in clients requiring proofreading service for the year analysed. It also highlights how strong the business arm of the company has now become - with a real focus on healthcare compliance. Our fastest growing area of expertise is Information Governance, and Words Worth Reading Ltd is now seeing a significant proportion of its customer base formed from private sector healthcare providers or AQPs.

We are also delighted to confirm that not a single complaint has been received from June 2013 - July 2014.