Finsbury Tower, 103-105, Bunhill Row, London, EC1Y 8TG, United Kingdom
Tel: (+44)20 7448 9200
feedback@healthcarecommission.org.uk''
|}
The Healthcare Commission is an independent UK body, set up to promote and drive improvement in the quality of healthcare and public health. It aims to achieve this by becoming an authoritative and trusted source of information and by ensuring that this information is used to drive improvement. The Commission is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) established by the Department of Health.
What does it do?
The Healthcare Commission fulfils its role in promoting quality in healthcare through providing an independent assessment of the standards of services provided by the NHS, private healthcare or voluntary organisations.
The Healthcare Commission achieves this by:
Regulating and inspecting NHS, private and voluntary healthcare providers.
Reviewing formal complaints about the NHS that have not been resolved.
Handling complaints about private and voluntary healthcare service providers.
Investigating serious failures in NHS, private and voluntary services.
The ability to inspect all sectors, provide guidance and act if that guidance is not acted on is possible because the Healthcare Commission is independent.
History
Formerly the Commission for Healthcare Improvement (CHI), the Healthcare Commission took over the role of CHI on the 1st April 2004, it also assumed some of the responsibilities of the National Care Standards Commission and the Audit Commission as well as a number of additional functions.
The legal name for the Healthcare Commission is CHAI - Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection, and was created by the Health and Social Care (Community Standards) Act 2003.
Mission statement
The Healthcare Commission promotes improvement in the quality of the NHS and independent healthcare. We have a wide range of responsibilities, all aimed at improving the quality of healthcare. We have a statutory duty to assess the performance of healthcare organisations, award annual performance ratings for the NHS and coordinate reviews of healthcare by others. Through this site, you can find out more about what we do and the difference we will make to patients and the public.
The Healthcare Commission aims to promote improvement in the quality of NHS and independent healthcare across England and Wales.
Among the Commission's functions, these mainly include:
* to independently inspect health services from patients' perspective, using standards set out by the Department of Health
* to coordinate NHS inspections with a range of other healthcare organisations in order to minimise disruption to doctors and nurses
* to identify how effectively public funds are used within healthcare - particularly whether tax payers are getting good value for money
* to develop an independent second stage for complaints about the NHS which cannot be resolved locally
* to investigate serious failures in healthcare services
* to publish regular ratings of NHS trusts in England and an annual report on healthcare in England and Wales.
We are interested not only in treatment but also in preventative work such as the quality of services that help people stop smoking. It is for this reason that our inspections will also look at how well health services protect and improve the health of the public.
Proposed future
Dated - 16th March 2005
The UK Health Secretary John Reid confirmed that the Healthcare Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection will merge to form a single organisation by 2008.
The planned merger reflects increasingly close collaboration on the ground between people working in social and health care. It also reflects shared objectives for the highest possible standards for everyone using social and health care services.
The merger is part of a wider policy to improve regulation and help reduce the burden that it can place on the frontline across social and health care. It follows on from the Department of Health’s programme of downsizing and its current review of its Arm’s Length Bodies.
"Healthcare Commission"