What is the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Why is it Important?
Providers of health and social care services in the UK are subject to a number of regulations and requirements to ensure they meet certain standards. The Care Quality Commission is one of the key regulators for providers in England. But what is the CQC, and why is it so important for healthcare services?
What is the Care Quality Commission (CQC)?
The CQC is an executive public body of the Department of Health and Social Care in the UK. It acts as an independent regulator of health and social care services in England, ensuring that they meet certain standards of quality and safety.
You could say that the CQC is to healthcare what TripAdvisor is to hotels and restaurants. It ensures standardised care is provided by dentists, nursing homes, ambulance services, clinics, and hospitals alike.
The CQC achieves this through regulation, inspections, safeguarding measures, and collaboration, as well as providing public information such as ratings for care providers. All of this is incredibly important for ensuring the public receives safe and fair treatment across a whole range of healthcare services.
While the health and social care sector looks to deliver more effective and sustainable services, many providers are venturing beyond traditional structures and moving into new, unexplored territories. With such a continually changing healthcare landscape, such regulation couldn’t be more important.
A good example of this is the treatment of refractive errors, and in particular, the ever-popular Laser Eye Surgery.
Ensuring Safe and Effective Treatments in England
While Laser Eye Surgery is now one of the most popular elective procedures in the world, the state of regulation in the field often leaves much to be desired. However, the CQC plays a crucial role in enforcing strict criteria to ensure safe and high-quality Laser Eye Surgery treatments.
The CQC has four principal markers for assessing any given healthcare service. These are:
- Excellence
- Care
- Integrity
- Teamwork
These measures allow the CQC to determine an organisation’s level of performance, dedication to treating patients and staff with respect and dignity, and overall approach to mutual learning and doing the right thing for all stakeholders. Meeting these criteria to the fullest means an organisation delivers a high-quality service. As such, they would be awarded the highest accolade by the CQC.
This is determined through regular monitoring, inspections, and assessments based on a very specific set of criteria and a performance rating system. The frequency of inspections can change based on the type of service, whether there is a concern, or a change in the provider’s circumstances.
For Laser Eye Surgery clinics and providers, major checks are conducted every few years. The last CQC report on London Vision Clinic was published in 2022. You can view the full report here.
In sum, it shows that patients of London Vision Clinic received a thorough explanation and screening before treatment, were satisfied with their care, and that the safety of the clinic, including infection control and emergency procedures, was of a high standard.
You can keep up to date on the latest inspections at the London Vision Clinic page on the CQC website. In the meantime, check out some of the reviews from our existing patients. Our TrustPilot page features thousands of testimonials from clients who’ve recently experienced our service firsthand, many of whom have given us 5-star reviews!
If you’d like to learn more about our services and treatments, get in touch with one of our friendly clinic coordinators. Alternatively, Book a Consultation today to experience our high-quality service for yourself!