Since July 2021, CQC have changed the way that they are inspecting Practices. No longer will there be a focus on the frequency of onsite visits but a regular review of the risk level there may be at a Practice. CQC are moving away from relying solely on onsite visits for their assessments, under the new system a Practice will only receive a site visit if they are deemed to be medium or high risk.
The process going forward up until 2022 (this is a transitional phase for moving to a new way of working for the CQC) is that CQC will conduct monthly reviews of all the data they hold on a Practice. This data includes:
- Current CQC rating
- Patient survey data
- Any previous or ‘open’ regulation breaches
- Whistleblowing and complaints
- Any safeguarding concerns – they will look for any themes or patterns which indicate there is a potential risk
- Prescribing indicators
- Disease management indicators
- Patient experience – this information is gathered from the patient survey
These reviews will be desk based and will lead to the following outcomes based on the risk level the CQC perceive the Practice to be at.
Low Risk – They will publish an assurance statement on their website which informs the public that there is no perceived risk now. This is refreshed monthly in line with the regular monitoring.
Medium Risk – This can lead to either Direct Monitoring Action (DMA), or further monitoring or inspection. The Direct Monitoring Action involves the CQC making direct contact with the GP Practice. This will normally involve a telephone call. DMA does not change the Practices rating; this can only be done via an onsite inspection.
High Risk – This will lead to an onsite inspection.
There are some concerns surrounding this new approach as there seems to be a greater focus on looking for the negatives in a Practice and moving away from looking for the positive aspects and improvements a Practice has made. There is a heavy reliance on what a Practice tells their inspector, it is down to the Practice to highlight all the positives and improvements.
For further information on CQCs new approach to monitoring and inspection here are some useful links: