Is it fair? No. But it's not the fault of the inspectors - Blair McPherson

 

The CQC has come in for more criticism recently a chief executive thinks they were unduly harsh in placing his trust in special measures having judged two areas of service failing yet recognised excellent work in many other areas of the trust. A journalist writes an article on nursing homes inspected and deemed to be performing well only for staff to be prosecuted for abuse! Doctors claim inspections are unhelpful and a time consuming distraction from the real business. Nurses social workers and teachers hate them because of the additional work and stress involved and the snaps judgments made based on so little direct observation. So is there a better way?

 

I think inspection serve a useful service. It is easy to coast and to think you have a better service than you do. It is tempting to shrug your shoulders and say this is the best we can do with the limited resources we have.

 

 

Some times it just bad luck that your inspection visit comes when it does. The fact that other trusts and other local authorities with in the region are also struggling with increased demand and budget cuts, that as a result their performance has dipped even more alarmingly than yours and the fact that their care standards have also drawn criticism from patent groups and local MPs is irrelevant its your services that are under the microscope not theirs.

 

You get to see the final report for factual accuracy and some of the errors are so basic they undermine your confidence in the report's findings. Then the report is published and its tone, if not its content,has completely changed. What happens between the final draft report and its publication? Politics. No one will ever admit that senior civil servants on behalf of their minister influence reports but they don't have to senior managers in CQC didn't get to be senior managers without know what is expected.