Patients cannot trust CQC’s hospital safety ratings, says Wes Streeting

Health secretary’s comments follow damning findings of interim report into state of English healthcare regulator

The healthcare regulator is so badly run that patients in England cannot trust the safety ratings it issues for hospitals, care homes or GP practices, the health secretary has said.

Wes Streeting said the Care Quality Commission was in such deep crisis it was not able to do its basic job reliably. His warning came after an interim report by the public care doctor Penny Dash found the CQC was plagued by low levels of physical inspections, a lack of consistency in assessments and problems with a faltering IT system.