General practices could be subject to “Ofsted style” ratings within two years

• Published in: BMJ (Online) Vol. 346; no. mar22 2; p. f1941
• Main Author: Iacobucci, Gareth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England British Medical Journal Publishing Group 22.03.2013; BMJ Publishing Group LTD
• Subjects: Female; General Practice - standards; Government Regulation; Humans; Male; Models, Organizational; Policy Making; Quality; Quality of Health Care - standards; Ratings & rankings; Trust; United Kingdom; England
• ISSN: 0959-8138; 1756-1833; 1756-1833
• DOI: 10.1136/bmj.f1941

Last year the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, commissioned the health policy think tank the Nuffield Trust to conduct an independent review to assess the feasibility of proposals to reintroduce a simple ratings system for NHS services. 1 The review identified a "clear gap" in the availability of information to patients that could properly inform them about the quality of care and improve the accountability of providers. [...]she warned that the process may be less clear cut for hospitals, where the long term goal should be to rate individual departments and clinical services to produce "a much truer understanding" of the quality of care provided. Possible sources of information that the report said could contribute to the rating included Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) indicators in general practice, computerised hospital records, surveys of patients and staff, peer reviews and inspections, and self assessment.