Doctor Care Anywhere has completed its action plan to reverse the downgrade that it received from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) last year, and is looking forward to a reinspection.
But so far, it still has no commitment from the healthcare regulator for when that reinspection might happen.
That is according to Zoe Sullivan, chief customer officer at Doctor Care Anywhere, who answered a question from Health & Protection at Laing Buisson’s Private Acute Healthcare Cover Summit in London yesterday.
Sullivan said: “Obviously everyone knows we got our rating from the CQC, and we would love them to come back and reinspect.
“But the state that they’re in now – its not going to happen anytime soon.”
The CQC has itself been under fire since July for being unable to consistently and effectively judge the quality of health and care services, including those in need of urgent improvement.
Sullivan said: “We are very proud of the service we offer. I think that the quality that we deliver is established through the patient feedback that we get.
“We have been working and we’ve got an action plan that is all completed.
“We’re in a great place actually.
“But we’re just waiting for a reinspection – and we’ve got no commitment on that at all yet.
Last October, Health & Protection reported that the CQC had downgraded its rating for Doctor Care Anywhere, which provides services for Axa Health’s private medical insurance (PMI) customers, to requires improvement.
The regulator downgraded Doctor Care Anywhere in the areas of being safe and being well-led – raising concerns about how doctors were prescribing medication and about nurses not having the required competences.
It said Doctor Care Anywhere must make improvements to “ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients” and “establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care”.
And in January, Health & Protection reported in an exclusive story that the CQC had rejected a request for a rating review from Doctor Care Anywhere, saying there was no case for the action.
But the situation changed in July, when the CQC itself fell victim to a poor review. Health & Protection reported that the CQC had been told to make “radical” improvements in performance after an independent review uncovered “significant” internal failings hampering its ability to identify poor performance at hospitals, care homes and GP practices.
The interim report, led by Dr Penny Dash, chairwoman of the North West London Integrated Care Board, found inspection levels were still “well below” where they were pre-pandemic, a lack of clinical expertise among inspectors, a lack of consistency in assessments and problems with the CQC’s IT system.
The failings meant the regulator was unable to consistently and effectively judge the quality of health and care services, including those in need of urgent improvement, the report said.
Later that month Health & Protection reported that Doctor Care Anywhere had said it was “confident and prepared” for the opportunity to demonstrate improvements made, but that it has yet to be given a date for a follow-up inspection by the CQC.