Cracks In The Pathway – CQC Report
Sharon Blackburn attended the launch of this Care Quality Commission (CQC) report on behalf of NCF. We would encourage members to read the report as the headlines do not help to show the full picture of the findings. The breakdown figures need to be examined and understood in greater detail, as these appear to show that, for each criteria, in the majority of care homes ‘good’ care practice was found.
A major review into the care provided to people living with dementia by the Care Quality Commission found an unacceptable gap in the quality of care that means people are at risk of experiencing poor care as they move between care homes and hospitals.
Andrea Sutcliffe (Chief Inspector, Adult Social Care) said that CQC found some excellent care, but their report shows that in under a third of the sample of care homes (129), and more than half of the sample of hospitals (20), aspects of ‘variable’ or ‘poor’ care were found.
“CQC have concluded that the quality of dementia care across providers is variable, and transitions between services need to be improved. People with dementia are likely to experience poor care at some point along their care pathway, but they have the right to expect good care and it is unacceptable that they should receive a variable quality of care”.
The CQC carried out a themed review of dementia services in 129 care homes and 20 hospitals across England, looking specifically at four areas: how people’s care needs were assessed; how care was planned and delivered; how providers worked together and how the quality of care was monitored.
In about 29% of care homes and 56% of hospitals we inspected, we found assessments were not comprehensive in identifying all of a person’s care needs and the impact this has on people living with dementia.
In about 34% of care homes and 42% of hospitals, we found aspects of variable or poor care regarding how the care met people’s mental health, emotional and social needs.
CQC intend to :
- appoint a new national specialist advisor for dementia care.
- train inspectors across all inspecting teams to understand what good dementia care looks like so that their judgements of the performance of providers are consistent and robust
- include a separate section in hospital inspection reports that shows how well the hospital cares for people living with dementia
A range of speakers gave a response to the report including Frank Ursell from RNHA.
