Monitor, the Care Quality Commission and the Future Hospital: the medical director's tale

The Future Hospital Commission suggested a number of ways in which hospital and other services should evolve to meet the changing medical needs of the communities they serve. The Health and Social Care Act (and the requirement that places on the regulator, Monitor) focuses on the need for competition and tendering of services to drive up standards. The Care Quality Commission on the other hand, partly in response to well publicised shortcomings, has changed its inspection programme to focus on quality, and the centrality of well led co-ordinated patient care. This article describes the author's recent experience of a CQC inspection to his own hospital and some of the lessons learned. It is perhaps possible to align the goals of the CQC and their inspection teams with those of the organisation, to improve patient care in line with the Future Hospital recommendations.