Care Quality Commission publish State of Care Report

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published their annual overview of health and social care in England.

The report looks at the trends, highlights examples of good and outstanding care, and identifies factors that maintain high-quality care.
The report highlights that most services provide people with good care, but variation exists. Some care services are closing, increasing pressure on other services including GP practices and hospitals. Strong leadership and collaboration will be important to ensure services improve and quality is maintained. State of Care also finds that the sustainability of the adult social care market is approaching a tipping point.

Read full findings and the report via: http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/state-of-care

Key findings include

• Most health and adult social care services in England are providing good quality care, despite a challenging environment, but substantial variation remains.
• Some health and care services are improving, but we are also starting to see some services that are failing to improve and some deterioration in quality.
• The majority of GP practices are providing good quality care and leading the change in service design.
• Adult social care services have been able to maintain quality, but there are indications that the sustainability of adult social care is approaching a tipping point.
• Hospitals are under increasing pressure, with inspections finding that too much acute care was rated inadequate, particularly urgent and emergency services and medical services.
• The sustainability of quality: evidence suggests that finance and quality are not necessarily opposing demands; many providers are delivering good quality care within the resources available, often by starting to transform the way they work through collaboration with other services and sectors.

Healthwatch England Response

In response to the CQC’s State of Care report, Healthwatch England’s Interim Chair, Jane Mordue, calls for the health and social care sector to meaningfully involve the public in decisions about health and social care.
Read the full response here.