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Description
In September 2013, we asked our followers on Twitter to tweet us their questions about our new inspections of NHS trusts.
In this video, Professor Sir Mike Richards, CQC Chief Inspector of hospitals, answers some of those questions.
Find out more:
Read Professor Sir Mike Richards' bio: http://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/our-people/chief-inspectors
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/carequalitycomm
Visit our website: www.cqc.org.uk
A
Hello,
my
name
is
Professor,
sir
Mike
Richards
I'm,
the
Chief
Inspector
of
hospitals.
My
task
is
to
inspect
all
hospitals
in
this
country,
but
also
mental
health
trusts,
community
trusts
and
ambulance
trusts.
What
I'm
here
to
do
today
is
to
answer
your
questions
both
on
camera
and
on
Twitter.
That's
a
very
important
question.
A
We
are
absolutely
committed
to
taking
the
views
of
patients
into
account
in
a
number
of
different
ways
for
each
of
our
inspections,
we're
going
to
help
hold
a
patient
and
public
listening
event,
probably
in
a
town
hall
near
to
a
hospital
where
we
will
gather
everybody
together
and
say,
tell
us
what
you
think
of
the
hospital
that
may
be
good.
That
may
be
less
good.
The
comments
of
people
want
to
make.
We
will
also
look
at
any
comments
that
sent
in
to
CQC.
A
We
will
send
a
look
at
complaints
that
have
been
sent
to
the
hospital,
a
range
of
other
sources
and
we'll
work
with
local
HealthWatch
on
that,
but
the
proof
of
the
pudding
is:
do
we
actually
then
respond
to
them?
Think
one
of
the
things
that
we
will
be
doing
is
getting
our
inspectors
to
hear,
what's
being
said
and
then
to
go
and
look
for
the
evidence
in
the
hospital
of
that
to
corroborate
it.
Discharged
arrangements
are
going
to
be
an
extremely
important
part
of
our
inspection.
A
We
will
be
looking
at
that
in
each
of
the
departments
that
we
go
into
so
in
the
am
a
department
or
in
the
medical
wards
on
the
surgical
wards
or
in
Maternity.
We
will
be
asking
patients
about
that,
we'll
be
asking
staff
about
what
the
discharge
arrangements
are
to
make
sure
that
there
really
is
true
integration,
both
with
primary
care
services
and
with
social
care
services.
So
we
have
already
said
this
is
going
to
be
an
absolute
integral
part
of
our
inspection
process.
A
We
will
always
have
a
pharmacist
on
the
team
if
we
have
reason
from
the
data
that
we've
gathered
to
think
there's
a
problem
that
doesn't
mean
we
will
have
a
pharmacist
on
every
single
team,
but
we
will
always
have
nursing
and
medical
staff
who,
after
all,
do
know
an
awful
lot
about
drugs.
Looking
at
the
safe
management
of
medicines
in
the
hospital,
and
if
we
find
anything
that
requires
follow-up,
we
will
then
get
a
pharmacist
to
come
in
and
look
I
think
in
terms
of
the
learning
environment.
A
We
need
to
look
both
within
CQC
at
how
we
become
a
learning
organization
and
then
how
we
can
share
the
learning
from
our
inspections
more
widely.
Both
are
very
important.
We
will
be
providing
training
for
our
inspectors
and
for
the
experts
that
join
us
on
our
inspections
and
we
are
committed
to
being
a
learning
organization,
but
we're
also
committed
to
sharing
learning
that
we
get
from
all
these
inspections
with
the
NHS
as
a
whole.
That
will
be
a
very
important
part
of
our
work.
A
I
think
it's
important
to
say
that
there
is
a
lot
of
good
care
in
the
NHS,
which
is
very
much
centered
on
the
individual.
But
the
questioner
is
completely
right
that
sometimes
the
care
isn't
centered
on
an
individual.
That
is
why
one
of
the
domains
that
we
are
looking
at
in
our
inspections
is
whether
a
hospital
is
caring,
and
we
can
look
at
that
in
a
number
of
ways.
We
can
ask
patients
in
the
public.
We
can
look
at
any
complaints
to
see
what's
happening
there.
A
But
importantly,
we
can
also
look
at
patient
survey
data,
whether
a
specific
questions
on
that.
So
we
will
be
looking
for
from
a
variety
of
angles
and
of
course
we
will
also
be
observing
the
direct
care.
That's
given
to
patients
on
what,
if
I'm
totally
honest,
the
answer
to
that
one
is
not
yet,
but
we've
only
done
two
inspections
and
they're
not
yet
complete.
A
So
I
can't
absolutely
say
that,
but
what
I
would
say
is
that
we
are
basing
our
approach
on
bringing
together
the
best
of
what's
a
Bruce
Keogh
used
for
his
review
of
14
hospitals
and
what
the
Care
Quality
Commission
has
done
in
the
past.
We're
blending
those
two
approaches
and
I
am
confident
that
that
will
work
and
I've
discussed
it
with
a
lot
of
people
and
they
seem
confident
too,
but
the
proof
of
the
pudding
will
be
when
we
actually
done
these
inspections.
A
Patient
feedback
is
going
to
be
important
in
all
sorts
of
different
ways.
It's
going
to
be
important
in
terms
of
the
listening
events
that
we
will
be
doing.
It
will
also
be
important
from
complaints
or
comments
that
they've
sent
in
to
us
actually
listening
to
patients
when
we're
on
the
wards
are
in
the
outpatient
department.
A
We
will
gather
all
that
together
and
that
will
give
us
clues
as
to
whether
we
need
to
be
looking
in
a
hospital,
and
then
we
will
do
that
direct
observation
of
care,
simple
answer:
yes,
we
will
look
at
medicines
management
in
all
of
our
inspections
and
in
all
of
the
different
areas
that
we
go
into,
we
will
look
at
how
medicines
are
being
handled.
Have
the
drug
charts
are
being
used,
whether
the
way
that
nurses
give
out
the
medicines?
All
of
that,
and
so
medicines
management
will
be
an
integral
part
of
our
inspections.