HEALTH Secretary Wes Streeting has threatened to take an axe to “overly complex” health quangos in a patient safety overhaul.
A review published today will confirm “significant failings” at the NHS and social care regulator, the Care Quality Commission.
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Ministers say they are reforming the organisation and a new chief executive was appointed last week.
Another two reviews have been commissioned into patient safety organisations more widely.
Investigators will scrutinise the CQC again, the National Guardian’s Office, Healthwatch England, the Health Services Safety Investigation Body, the Patient Safety Commissioner and NHS Resolution.
They will consider “whether patient safety could be bolstered through a different approach”.
Mr Streeting said: “An overly complex system of healthcare regulation and oversight is no good for patients or providers.
“We will overhaul the system to make it effective and efficient, to protect patient safety.”
It comes after Lord Ara Darzi’s landmark report on the state of the NHS found that super-complicated regulation is a burden on medics.
He found there are thousands more Whitehall penpushers than in 2008 and the ratio of regulatory office staff per hospital trust doubled from 53 in 2013 to 109 in 2022.
Lord Darzi said: “Too many people holding people to account, and not doing the job, can be counterproductive.”
Today’s report into the Care Quality Commission finds that it has significant internal failings.
Its performance in inspections is poor and it has not had the capacity to improve, it said.
Vic Rayner, chair of the Care Provider Alliance, said: “It is evident that a step change is required in regulation.”