Imagine you work at a practice where you only ever receive comments, compliments or suggestions to improve your working practices. Your patients only want to see you to tell you how good your team is; they send thank-you cards and bring gifts as a way of showing their appreciation for the service they receive. Okay,…

So, it happened; we got the dreaded email: “We will be inspecting your surgery in two weeks.” Two weeks! That really isn’t long! So much to do! Re-read those blogs on KLOEs and work out what on earth they’re all about, check that all the infection control stuff is okay, double-check that the HR files…

While 96% of practices have been rated good or outstanding by the CQC, the scrutiny is relentless, with more ‘boots on the ground’ inspections for a proportion of good and outstanding practices each year. Here are five tips on keeping your website CQC-ready at all times. 1) Display your CQC rating The regulations state that…

Practices are to be spared overall increases in fees to the Care Quality Commission in the coming year – but will not benefit from successful cost-cutting, it has been announced. Some practices may face changes because of changes in patient numbers – but there will be no overall increase in fees, according to proposals published…

The Caring KLOE is the shortest of all key lines of enquiry, but arguably the one with most impact on the patients and their families/carers. It’s also the one where no practice will ever feel they fall short of 100% compliance. Experience leads those involved in inspections to recognise that a culture of caring is…

Continuing our focus on CQC inspections and the key lines of enquiry (KLOEs), in this article we concentrate on the ‘effective’ element. The effective KLOE is all about being good at showing how the practice employs evidence-based outcomes that enable patients to experience a good quality of life. There’s also an underlying theme of making…

The Safety KLOE has arguably undergone the most change in the new inspection regime – and more than likely reflects the results from the first round of inspections where safety issues were not found to be either well-applied or consistent. Safety here applies to patients and service users and as would be expected, the issues…