Ongoing CQC Inspection Preparation to Meet CQC Standards

With the new CQC framework being rolled out throughout registered healthcare providers in the UK, what better time is there to get organised and review your organisation's CQC preparation processes?

There is no standardised CQC inspection checklist, as the inspection process and review vary from one organisation to another. However, we have compiled some suggestions for a GP CQC preparation checklist, highlighting various areas to consider.

Do you have a list of CQC inspection areas and the relevant requirements per area?

The CQC follows 5 key areas/questions when inspecting healthcare services, asking if each provider is safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well-led. Alongside this, CQC has recently introduced a new framework incorporating “I” and “We” quality statements into the inspection process.

What are the CQC's New "I" and "We" Statements?

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has introduced a set of "I" and "We" statements designed to enhance the clarity and effectiveness of its regulatory framework. These statements are part of the CQC's commitment to placing people’s experiences at the heart of its work and ensuring that healthcare services meet high standards of quality and safety.

"I" Statements

"I" statements reflect the expectations and experiences of people using health and social care services. They articulate what individuals should be able to say about their care, based on the CQC’s regulatory objectives. These statements are person-centred and designed to capture the real-life impact of services on users.

Examples of "I" statements include:

"I am treated with respect and dignity."
"I am involved in decisions about my care."
"I feel safe when using this service."

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"We" Statements

"We" statements define the actions and behaviours that providers should demonstrate to meet the expectations outlined in the "I" statements. These statements are directed at healthcare providers and outline the standards they need to achieve to ensure high-quality care.

Examples of "We" statements include:

"We treat everyone with respect and dignity."
"We involve people in decisions about their care."
"We ensure people feel safe when using our services."

What Does the New Approach Mean for Healthcare Providers

The new "I" and "We" statements represent a significant shift towards a more user-centric approach in the CQC's regulatory practices.

The "We" statements serve as clear guidelines for what good care looks like from the regulator’s perspective, aiming to make it easier for providers to align their practices with regulatory requirements.

From a different perspective, the new "I" statements encourage providers to focus on the patient's experience, ensuring that the care delivered meets the personal needs and preferences of those using the services, promoting better patient outcomes.

How Are the New “I” and “We” Statements Used?

The "I" and "We" statements work together to create a comprehensive framework that guides the CQC’s inspections and evaluations. Here’s how they function in practice:

During Inspections

Inspectors use the "I" and "We" statements as criteria to assess the quality of care provided. They evaluate whether the experiences of people using the service align with the "I" statements and whether the provider's actions match the "We" statements.

Feedback and Reporting

The CQC gathers feedback from service users to see if their experiences reflect the "I" statements. This feedback is crucial in determining the quality of care from the patient's perspective.

Guiding Continuous Improvement

The "We" statements serve as a roadmap for providers to improve their services. By adhering to these statements, providers can ensure they are meeting regulatory standards and enhancing the overall quality of care.

How Can I Use the New Statements Be Used for Continuous Improvement and To Meet GP CQC Standards?

The new approach provides a clear benchmark against which services can be measured, allowing providers to self-assess and proactively improve their services continuously. This supports providers who are aiming to regularly review and enhance their practices and processes to meet the evolving needs and expectations of patients and service users.

Providers should look to align their organisation's processes, procedures, and documents against the CQC’s single assessment framework and five key questions to identify any compliance gaps and ensure complete compliance.

This can be quite a daunting task, so we’d recommend using a digital GP compliance tool to simplify the process and provide a pre-made framework for you to follow.

Blue Stream Academy’s CQC Health Check provider's a clear and concise digital framework to monitor CQC compliance, review strengths and weaknesses, and continuously improve services.

The CQC Health Check system currently provides a clear CQC preparation map, alongside a Cyber Essentials Plus secured digital storage facility to ongoingly collect documents and evidence in readiness for a CQC inspection.

In response to the CQC’s new framework, the CQC Health Check system will very soon have the option to switch framework view to monitor organisational compliance against the 5 key questions and “I” and “We” statements. Once set up, you can start reviewing what policies, procedures and documents you need to develop and store to improve patient experience and organisational compliance.

Improving General Practice (GP) Policies and Procedures to Support CQC Compliance and Patient Experience

Policies and procedures in General Practitioner (GP) surgeries enhance patient experience by ensuring consistency, safety, and efficiency in healthcare delivery. By introducing standard practices, patients can rely on the practice for consistent and predictable care. For, clear and concise infection control protocols and medication management procedures enhance patient safety, and clear communication channels ensure patients receive timely and accurate information.

From a continuous improvement perspective, feedback and quality improvement processes based on patient input help identify and address areas for enhancement. Data protection and privacy practices build trust by safeguarding patient information, while staff training and competency assessments ensure high-quality care from skilled professionals.

To maintain compliance and deliver high-quality care, having a clear and comprehensive set of policies and procedures in place is vital. Below are just a few that we’d recommend for getting started – for a full list of our recommended documents, get in touch with a member of the team for information on the CQC Health Check system framework.

Safeguarding Adults and Children
Infection Control and Prevention
Data Protection and Information Governance
Clinical Governance
Medicines Management
Health and Safety
Equality and Diversity
Whistleblowing
Consent to Treatment
Complaints Handling

Examples of Effective Procedures

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) ensure that policies are not just documents but living practices within the organisation. Things like regular training sessions and emergency drills ensure that all staff are prepared for various scenarios, whilst routine audits of clinical practices and administration processes help to identify areas for improvement and ensure ongoing compliance. Alongside this, encouraging patient feedback via straightforward systems supports patient experience improvement and CQC compliance.

How to Ensure All Staff Are Familiar with and Follow These Protocols

Creating an effective process is one thing, but ensuring staff are familiar with it and follow it in their day-to-day role is another. Embedding these processes into comprehensive induction programmes helps new starters familiarise themselves with all necessary policies and procedures from the beginning.

For existing staff members, regular fresher training helps to keep all staff updated on any changes to policies and procedures that they should be aware of. Alongside this, every organisation should ensure that these documents are available in digital format and easily accessible by all employees for reference.

How Does GP Training Improve Practice Outcomes and CQC Compliance?

GP training enhances practice outcomes and ensures Care Quality Commission (CQC) compliance by keeping GPs current with the latest medical knowledge and skills. It improves patient safety by reducing medical errors and preparing GPs for emergencies. Training in communication enhances patient interactions, while education on administrative workflows boosts operational efficiency.

Moreover, training ensures general practice teams understand and adhere to CQC standards, facilitating compliance with legal and quality requirements. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) fosters a culture of self-assessment and quality improvement for doctors/GPs, nurses, midwives, and other staff with revalidation requirements, helping practices implement effective strategies to meet and exceed CQC standards. This commitment to ongoing education and skill refinement leads to better patient care and satisfaction.

How do you ensure that staff training remains up to date with changing legal and regulatory requirements?

Online training platforms provide a convenient and efficient way for primary care providers to keep up-to-date with the latest compliance requirements and best practices mandated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Introducing online training into your GP practice improves accessibility and flexibility, with the training materials accessible anytime, anywhere. GP eLearning training also increases constancy in training content, ensuring that all staff receive the same quality of mandatory training and helping maintain uniform standards across the practice. Unlike face-to-face training methods, eLearning content is updated in real-time to reflect updated guidelines and regulations, ensuring that General Practice teams are always informed about current standards.

Benefits of Using eLearning for GP Training

Unlike face-to-face training methods, online training can be accessed anytime, anywhere, making it perfect for busy healthcare professionals who often do not have the opportunity to leave their organisation for a full day of training at an external site. Most online GP training programmes can often be accessed in short stints in between appointments, splitting down larger GP training courses into short, accessible periods.

Online learning also encourages a self-paced approach, which accompanied with interactive learning elements and scenarios improves user engagement and enhances the understanding and retention of topics covered.

In comparison to face-to-face training methods, online training often works out much better value for money – with no venue, travel, staff cover, and trainer hire costs, it’s a no-brainer! Alongside this, digital learning tools increase administration efficiency by removing hours of manual data inputting and reporting with many online tools offering built-in reporting and tracking features.

Blue Stream Academy’s GP eLearning Platform

Founded in 2012, Blue Stream Academy’s GP eLearning platform has led the way for digital primary care training and compliance tools, supporting over a quarter of a million healthcare professionals throughout the UK.

The GP eLearning platform Academy provides a wide range of mandatory and non-mandatory GP courses covering essential topics like safeguarding, infection control, and information governance. All of Blue Stream Academy’s GP training content is written in-house by a team of eLearning specialists and reviewed by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Every eLearning module is CPD-certified, and the GP platform is Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certified.

Blue Stream Academy’s Most Popular GP eLearning Modules

Fire Safety

Every year, services are interrupted, property and equipment damaged, injuries sustained, and lives lost as a result of fires in the workplace. Fire safety is an important matter whatever your working environment, and healthcare settings have specific considerations such as the fire risks posed by medical oxygen and other substances, the potential for fires to be started by arsonists, and emergency evacuation of people with different health needs.

Our Fire Safety eLearning module for GP practices provides an overview of how fires start, introduces fire safety regulations, provides information on the types of fire hazards people may encounter within a healthcare setting, and guidance on fire prevention good practice, fire safety measures, firefighting equipment, and emergency plans.

Information Governance

Data security has always been important, however, now that technology is central to the way healthcare is delivered it has become more complex and the potential for things to go wrong has increased.

Everyone who uses our services should be able to trust that their personal confidential information is protected. People should be assured that those involved in their care, and in running and improving services, are using such information appropriately and only when absolutely necessary.

Our Information Governance eLearning for healthcare professionals provides anyone within a General Practice team with an understanding of information and the law, data security threats, and breaches and incidents.

Equality and Diversity

Our Equality and Diversity eLearning for GP and healthcare professionals covers health inequalities and how they can be a barrier to accessing healthcare, recognising and challenging discrimination, bullying, and harassment, microaggressions and unconscious bias, positive actions workers and senior colleagues can take to improve equity and inclusion, relevant legislation.

Chaperoning

An intimate examination can be a daunting experience for a person. As a result, it is important that their privacy, safety and dignity are preserved throughout this process. One of the ways that this is safeguarded is through the attendance of a chaperone.

A chaperone is an impartial observer who acts as a witness to the individual’s continuing consent during the procedure and protects health and care professionals against unfounded allegations of improper behaviour.

The module contains information relating to the identification of when a chaperone may be required, what the role entails, the importance of good communication, and considerations following the increase in remote examinations.

Sepsis and Sepsis Awareness

Sepsis is the body's often life-threatening response to infection that can lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death. Usually, when the body has an infection, it will fight it on its own or with the aid of medicines, however, Sepsis occurs when the body begins to fight itself, rather than the infection.

Sepsis, previously known as septicaemia or blood poisoning, is responsible for an estimated 44,000 deaths per year in the UK. It is a time-critical condition that can change from a mild illness to a serious one in a very short space of time.

Although potentially life-threatening, if caught early it can be easily treated, so it is important that all staff members are able to spot the signs of Sepsis.

Our Sepsis module covers who is at risk, assessing symptoms for potential Sepsis, identifying people with suspected Sepsis and diagnosis and early management.

Latest GP eLearning Releases

Challenging Behaviour

Designed for health and social care staff, our Challenging Behaviour eLearning module offers comprehensive insights into understanding, managing, and effectively responding to challenging behaviours exhibited by individuals receiving care.

Covering essential topics such as triggers, de-escalation methods and communication techniques, health and social care staff will gain valuable skills to enhance their ability to provide compassionate and effective support.

An Understanding of NHS Cancer Screening Programmes

There are three national cancer screening programmes in England: NHS Cervical Screening Programme; NHS Breast Screening Programme and NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme.

NHS cancer screening programmes hold immense significance in the UK as they play a crucial role in saving lives. Cancer screening helps spot cancers at an early stage when treatment is more likely to be successful – and more people will survive cancer.

Cancer screening is a personal choice and a decision only the individual themselves can make, however, it is important for healthcare professionals to be knowledgeable about the screenings, be able to offer advice and encourage people to attend.

Drug and Alcohol Awareness

Healthcare workers may face a series of dilemmas if they encounter service users under the influence of substances - can the individual receive care and treatment if they have used alcohol or drugs? Can they take their prescribed medication? Is it safe to remain in the situation, or should you remove yourself (and others)? Should the police be called? Equally, many health and care workers are at risk of having problematic substance use themselves, with work pressures being a contributing factor.

Our Drug and Alcohol Awareness eLearning module equips healthcare professionals with strategies for interacting with individuals affected by substance use, whether they're service users, visitors, colleagues, or others. It covers understanding substance use, the workplace implications of substance use and relevant legislation, and immediate responses in various scenarios with someone who is intoxicated. Key topics include recognising signs of substance use, navigating issues related to, for example, mental capacity, confidentiality, and safeguarding, and preventing and managing challenging behaviours.

Safely Entering and Exiting a Person’s Home

Issues can arise when travelling to and from the home of a service user, particularly at night, in isolated areas, encountering pets, and dealing with challenging behaviour. This eLearning module contains information relating to the preparation of a home visit, the process of entering and exiting a person’s home, and additional factors to consider before, during, and after a home visit.

The module provides information relating to the intangible qualities that should be demonstrated when undertaking a home visit, such as being observant, showing respect, and maintaining impeccable behavioural conduct. The module also provides information relating to the administrative elements of a home visit, including visit verification, identification cards, and location and tracking considerations.

Health and Safety for Domiciliary Care

When undertaking domiciliary care tasks, there may be situations which pose a risk to the health and safety of those being cared for and those delivering the care.

Blue Stream Academy’s Health and Safety for Domiciliary Care module has been created to assist health and social care professionals in performing home visits safely and effectively. Key topics include risk assessments, legislation, travel, hot water and surfaces, moving and handling, challenging behaviour, and infection control.

The module also contains procedural information such as situations in which access may be gained, visit verification measures, and responsibilities surrounding post-visit administration.

GP Asset Management – Fridges, Taps and Medical Equipment

Every GP surgery should maintain a list of medical equipment, fridges, taps, and other auditable assets to ensure essential equipment performance data is recorded. For example, medical fridges storing vaccinations or temperature-dependent medication should have their temperatures checked twice a day to ensure the contents remain fit for use. Taps should be flushed regularly to minimise the risk of legionella, and the expiry dates of emergency drug bag contents should be recorded with relevant items replaced as needed.

Simplifying Compliance and Improving Practice Outcomes with the CQC Health Check System

Blue Stream Academy’s new CQC Health Check system includes a built-in asset management system, digitalising the process and enabling senior primary care professionals to record asset names, types, tags, storage areas, purchase dates, and assigned relevant staff members.

The CQC Health Check system has been designed in collaboration with practice managers to provide an efficient and effective compliance solution, eliminating the need for extensive setup time. Just add your rooms and auditable assets, configure your task schedule, and you're ready to go – no cumbersome portal building or lengthy product training required.

We’ve linked the CQC Health Check system with different data sources to optimise workflow and empower managers with a single, dynamic platform. Managers and system administrators can link their organisation's Blue Stream Academy training reports and digital policy library without any prior setup to minimise data duplication and increase administrative efficiency. Additionally, managers and system administrators can promptly review new MHRA Alerts upon release, create and assign specific tasks to staff, and manage the alert from initial release through to its closure.

The CQC Health Check portal provides a visual overview of compliance across Clinical Governance, Health & Safety, Medicines Safety, People, and Practice Governance. Coming soon to the CQC Health Check portal is the option to switch from the current categorisation system to CQC’s five key areas (safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led) or the new single assessment framework (including the “I” and “We” statements).

Click here to contact Blue Stream Academy's friendly team for more information on the GP eLearning platform or the new CQC Health Check system.

The Role of GP Compliance Tools and Training in Meeting CQC Standards