Care Quality Commission registration
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) announced plans on 1 April 2010 to give Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust a licence to provide services under a new, tougher system for regulating standards in the NHS.
To be registered, the Trust needed to show it could meet new essential standards of quality and safety, which CQC will constantly monitor.
These standards include:
- Treating people with respect
- Involving people in decisions about their care
- Keeping clinical areas clean
- Ensuring services are safe
The CQC is the independent regulator of all health and adult social care in England.
The Health and Social Care Act 2008 introduced a new, single registration system that applies to both health and adult social care.
The new system makes sure that people can expect services to meet new essential standards of quality and safety that respect their dignity and protect their rights.
It is focused on outcomes, rather than systems and processes, and places the views and experiences of people who use services at its centre.
All 378 NHS trusts providing services in England are registered with the CQC whose full legal powers come into force on 1 April 2010. Trusts must be registered with CQC by law to provide care.
- See www.cqc.org.uk for further information
