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CQC should not ‘sit in an ivory tower’ when rating ICSs, says preferred chair
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) should not ‘sit in an ivory tower and dream up what it thinks good looks like’ when it starts rating integrated care systems, the proposed new chair for the regulator has told MPs.
Ian Dilks, the government’s preferred candidate to become the CQC’s new chair, was questioned by the health and social care committee on Tuesday. During the session the committee chair’s Jeremy Hunt asked how Mr Dilks would make the rating of systems “a success”.
Mr Hunt said: “We became the first healthcare system in the world to ‘Ofsted rate’ our hospitals. Under your leadership, assuming you take up this role, we will become the first healthcare system in the world to do the same for entire geographical regions of health systems.”
Mr Dilks responded: “I don’t think it is up to the CQC to sit in an ivory tower and dream up what it thinks good looks like.”
“It will not be in anybody’s interest if the CQC comes up with a whole bunch of ratings and ICSs say, ‘well I don’t know how you got there’.” He added: “I think involving all parties in the development process so that what emerges has a high degree of acceptance.”
He was also asked at the session about what he had learnt about improving patient safety while working at NHS Resolution.
Mr Dilks said: “I do not think the system is good at learning… it needs some help and encouragement to firstly really understand what’s gone wrong when you have an outcome that isn’t the correct one, and secondly how do you encourage and support the system to do better the next time around.”
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Source: HSJ, 23 February 2022