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‘CAN WE ASK CQC FOR MORE TIME?’
Nicole Ridgwell of Ridouts answers your legal questions
Our service is undergoing
many changes after being
recommissioned and we
haven’t enough hours in
the day. We are very short
staffed and a CQC
inspection is the last thing we need – we haven’t even
time to complete the paperwork. Are we legally
obliged to comply with the CQC’s timescale?
Nicole answers:
The short answer is yes! If you are regulated by the
Care Quality Commission as a provider of regulated
activities, you must comply with the reasonable
requests of your regulator. The CQC in return must
produce guidance to help providers to comply with
the regulations. Regulation 21 of the HSCA 2008
(Regulated Activity) Regulations 2014 (as amended)
says that registered persons ‘must have regard’ to
this guidance.
There is a level of discretion in the regulations, in
that the provider is responsible for meeting the
regulations and deciding how to do this. It is not
CQC’s role to tell providers what they must do to
deliver their services. However, there are certain
MEDIA SAVVY
population. In order to tackle the
opioid epidemic, we must first
tackle a major contributor –
physician overprescribing.
BMJ editorial, 19 October
Public health crises come in two forms
– those resulting from naturally
occurring diseases and those that are
the by-product of medical care itself.
The opioid crisis is the latest self-
inflicted wound in public health. In the
US alone, there were 240m opioid
prescriptions dispensed in 2015, nearly
one for every adult in the general
18 | drinkanddrugsnews | November 2017
‘There is a
level of
discretion
in the
regulations.’
fundamental aspects
of the regulations
which are non-
negotiable, and
compliance with the
request for pre-
inspection
information is one.
A provider which
considers itself to
have a good
relationship with the
local CQC inspector
might consider asking for a little extra time to produce
the requested paperwork, but I would urge caution.
Any such request must be phrased very carefully.
Inspectors are rating on the five key questions; the
fifth of which is ‘well-led’, analysing the leadership and
organisational culture of providers. Being able to show
how you document your provider activities is key to
this. Informing your inspector prior to inspection that
you do not have the current capacity to demonstrate
compliance is unlikely to be interpreted kindly.
While any provider (let alone the short-staffed and
under resourced majority) may be tempted to consider
I was surprised to read last
week that the Czechs are not
only the unhealthiest people
in the EU but are the
unhealthiest people in the
world… It turned out t