CQC publishes its review into Birmingham health and social care
May 18, 2018
From the Care Quality Commission.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published their local system review report in Birmingham’s health and social care system. The review focuses on how the health and social care system works together, with a focus on the integration of services for older people aged over 65.
Key findings:
- Birmingham has a shared commitment to improving services for people in the city, but that services needed to improve how they work together effectively.
- People’s experiences of care varied and that access for people across the city was inconsistent.
- Engagement with wider system partners needed to be strengthened, including with voluntary, community and social enterprises delivering health and social care services.
- Birmingham needed to improve its engagement with diverse communities to involve them in the planning and delivery of services.
- Fewer people had care choice and control over their care.
- People are being admitted to hospital with social care needs which could have been managed more effectively and safely at home, with some people staying in hospital for longer than they needed to.
Read the full report, findings and the review’s recommendations here.
Healthwatch Birmingham shared feedback as part of the CQC visit which took place in January 2018, with our work acknowledged as part of the review.
- Our Quality Standard for using patient and public insight, experience and involvement is supporting a more joined up approach to engagement with people using services.
- Our investigation into CCG’s complaints processes is supporting a systematic approach to evaluation and learning from feedback.
- The review highlighted our report Can patients with a clinical need access emergency GP appointments in Birmingham? which demonstrated that people with a clinical need for an emergency appointment were not always getting access to primary care. The CQC review highlighted that this could contribute to older people entering into acute settings unnecessarily.