CQC’s ‘ridiculous’ inspections without clinical input

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has been accused of undertaking “ridiculous” inspections without clinical input which have put patients at risk, HSJ can reveal.

Several senior internal figures have raised fundamental safety concerns about the regulator’s inspection of what it deems “low risk practices” without clinical input.

They have accused the CQC of prioritising “quantity over quality” and “providing false assurances” in a move they argued was driven by the need to meet a target of completing 9,000 inspections by September, with primary care expected to deliver 1,200.

Their intervention follows the CQC deciding that surgeries previously rated “outstanding” or “good”, including those which have not been visited in several years, were to be re-inspected without a GP providing clinical input.

The regulator stressed to HSJ that clinical input remained “central to [its] approach” and that “should the need arise, [it] will draw on GP specialist advisers to provide valuable insight for a broader inspection”.

But one senior source warned: “The CQC… are prioritising numbers over patient safety… People will be looking at a rating, and if a practice has a rating of ‘good’, they’re going to think that means good clinical care, but clinical care won’t have been reviewed or assessed.

“A practice that hasn’t been inspected for up to 10 years could have had a whole change of leadership and quality of care delivered… just because they were ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ back then, doesn’t mean to say they are now…. To do inspections without any clinical input is just ridiculous.”

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Source: HSJ, 4 June 2026