‘Arrogance and bullying’ persist from ‘less understanding’ regulators, say trusts

NHS England and the Care Quality Commission are becoming less understanding of the pressures on trusts, their leaders report, with one CEO complaining “the arrogance and bullying continues to get worse”. 

This is the finding of a new survey of trust chiefs, chairs and directors by NHS Providers, shared with HSJ and published in a new report on regulation today.

It found two-thirds of trust leaders felt NHSE had a good understanding of “the pressures that NHS providers are facing” — down from 74% cent in a similar NHSP regulation survey in 2019, and 75% in 2018.

NHSP found: “Leaders from the acute sector were much more likely to say regulators understood the pressure they were under than those from the mental health or community sectors.”

One combined acute/community CEO said: “Not only have the number of requests increased but now they are coming from multiple levels, [integrated care system], regional and national.”

Meanwhile, most respondents welcomed regulators’ proposed changes to their approach – for example, by the CQC to a “risk based” approach, and NHSE towards collaboration – but many indicated they did not feel these were being put into practice.

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Source: HSJ, 26 July 2022