The Care Quality Commission (CQC) will carry out ‘rapid response inspections’ of healthcare providers based on prompts from a new artificial intelligence (AI)-led early warning system, the Government has announced.
Forming part of its NHS 10-year plan, this system will see the CQC moving to a ‘more data-led regulatory model’.
The new national AI-powered early warning system will build on the capabilities in the Federated Data Platform (FDP) to monitor real-time data to flag safety issues. Where problems are detected, inspection teams will be deployed quickly to assess service quality.
The changes will mean that in future the CQC will use two different models of inspection:
- Rapid response inspections, where concerns are identified and inspectors are deployed to understand the nature and significance of problems
- Routine planned inspections, where services are independently inspected by experts – generally on a three- to five-year cycle, depending on the level of risk.
The Government also pledged to take firmer action where standards are not met by healthcare providers.
The CQC will ‘make sure persistent poor-quality care results in the decommissioning or contract termination of services or providers, no matter the setting, no matter whether the provider is in the NHS or independent sector, and no matter whether they are a GP practice or an individual NHS Trust’, the plan said.
In its first stage, a maternity outcomes signal system will launch across NHS trusts from November, to flag higher than expected rates of stillbirth, neonatal death and brain injury. But when fully implemented it could be used to identify patterns of abuse, serious injuries, deaths, or other incidents.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘While most treatments in the NHS are safe, even a single lapse that puts a patient at risk is one too many. Behind every safety breach is a person – a life altered, a family devastated, sometimes by heart-breaking loss.
‘Patient safety and power are at the heart of our 10 Year Health Plan. By embracing AI and introducing world-first early warning systems, we’ll spot dangerous signs sooner and launch rapid inspections before harm occurs.
‘This technology will save lives – catching unsafe care before it becomes a tragedy. It’s a vital part of our commitment to move the NHS from analogue to digital, delivering better, safer care for everyone.’
Extending legal powers and inspection remit
Other planned changes include extending the regulator’s legal powers and expanding its inspection remit. The current three-year time limit for the CQC to bring legal action against healthcare providers will be extended.
The CQC will also assume the function of checking ‘whether every provider (and in time, ICB) has effective freedom to speak up functions’, according to the plan.
As part of plans to reduce the number of NHS quangos, the CQC will also absorb organisations such as the Health Services Safety Investigations Body to counter and simplify the ‘regulatory tsunami that is overwhelming the system but has not led to sustained improvements in safety’, the plan said.
It follows last year’s Dash review into the CQC’s effectiveness which found it had ‘lost credibility’, including a marked increase in the time it took to re-inspect healthcare services.
Average re-inspection times increased from 87 days in 2015 to 136 days in 2024 for ‘inadequate’ ratings, and from 142 days to 360 days during the same period for ‘requires improvement’ ratings.
In addition, the CQC was plagued by IT system failures which led to the temporary ‘loss’ of hundreds of inspection reports.
CQC chief executive Sir Julian Hartley said: ‘We welcome this ambitious, future-focused plan for a world-class NHS that truly delivers for patients and the public.
‘We will develop a stronger focus on all dimensions of quality and on tackling inequalities in access, experience, and outcomes. Our ambition to become intelligence-led will be further boosted by the development of tools that help us capture the voice and experiences of people using health and social care, which we will use alongside our own data and that held by partners to spot and act on risk earlier.
‘We are already developing our new clearer, simpler, assessment approach, and in the future our experienced teams of inspectors, led by our newly appointed Chief Inspectors, will be able to conduct more inspections and share feedback on the findings more quickly – so that providers can make faster improvements, and the public have timely information about care.’
Sir Julian added that a focus on tackling longstanding inequalities and the CQC’s unique perspective across local systems will enable the regulator ‘to understand where gaps between services impact people – and how to close those gaps’.
A version of this article was originally published by our sister publication Pulse.
