HOSPITAL chiefs in Warrington are celebrating after receiving a licence to provide services under a new, tougher regime for regulating standards in the NHS.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has announced that Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded the licence without conditions.
Warrington Hospital and Halton General are covered by the registration.
Trust chief executive Catherine Beardshaw said: “We are delighted that we have been registered without condition by the CQC. Our aim is to provide high quality services and an excellent patient experience to all our patients and the licence recognises the hard work of our staff in ensuring patients receive excellent levels of care and are treated with dignity and respect.
“Our registration with CQC confirms that we are meeting essential standards of quality and safety, which is at the heart of everything we do and will continue to be a focus for further improvement in the future.”
A number of NHS trusts in England now have to be registered with CQC by law to provide care. To be registered, trusts must show they meet new essential standards of quality and safety, which the regulator will constantly monitor.
The new standards cover important issues for patients such as treating people with respect, involving them in decisions about care, keeping clinical areas clean, and ensuring services are safe.
Where the CQC finds Trusts are not meeting standards, it has stronger enforcement powers than ever before.
This can start with a warning notice and escalate to fines, prosecution, restrictions on activities or in extreme cases, closure. The regulator is also promising to take more account of the views of the public, gathering systematically the views of local patient groups and ensuring that patients have greater involvement in inspections.
In October CQC will extend the new registration system so that it covers independent healthcare and adult social care providers. For the first time, all these organisations will have to comply with a common set of essential standards.
From April next year, the registration system will cover dentists and private ambulances and from April 2012, it is set to include primary medical care services such as GPs and private midwives.
More information is available at www.cqc.org.uk
HOSPITAL chiefs in Warrington are celebrating after receiving a licence
to provide services under a new, tougher regime for regulating standards
in the NHS.
Hospitals pass tough new regulations
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
