CQC announces its regulatory fees for providers for 2018/19
Following a public consultation last year, we have outlined the fees that providers of health and adult social care in England will pay from April 2018 to cover the costs of their regulation. We made proposals that affected NHS trusts, NHS GPs and community social care providers. These providers have received a letter outlining the detail of the changes. You can find the annual fee for your service for 2018/19 using the fees calculator published on our website. You can also find guidance on how and when to pay your fees, including information on paying by instalment.
 Signs of improvement but some concerns remain regarding providers of online GP services
On 23 March 2018 we published our assessment of the state of online primary care in England. The report was based on our overall findings from 55 inspections since November 2016.
We found that online consultations have the potential to improve access and convenience for some patients, such as those with physical impairments for whom attending face-to-face appointments could be difficult.
Ninety-seven percent of providers met the regulations against the caring key question, with 90% being found to be responsive to people's needs. Safety is where CQC found the greatest concerns, but also where CQC has seen the greatest improvement.
CQC will continue to hold these providers to account and it will share the good practice it finds in order to encourage further improvement.
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Updates to myth busters and tips
You can find our updated myth busters and tips for general practice and dentistry by following the links. They are designed to help providers with the CQC inspection process and share agreed guidance and best practice.
National bodies agree on shared view of quality for general practice
The 11 national organisations who together are responsible for the regulation and oversight of general practice in England have published a joint view of the principles that define quality in general practice. This national strategy will form the basis for defining quality measures and best practice.
Updates to provider guidance
Earlier in the month we updated our provider guidance to provide further detail on the changes that we are making in how we monitor, inspect and regulate general practice and dentistry. You can find the guidance by following the links.
Consultation on how we regulate independent healthcare
Our consultation on proposals for inspecting, monitoring and rating independent healthcare services closed on 23 March 2018. Thank you to all those that were able to share their views either by attending a focus group or responding to our consultation online. We look forward to reading what you had to say. We are hoping to publish our response in early summer – please keep a look out.
General Data Protection Regulation
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
takes effect on 25 May 2018 and will replace the current Data Protection Act
1998.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
are publishing general
guidance on GDPR. This is being supplemented by guidance
for health and social care which is being produced by the Information
Governance Alliance and published by NHS Digital. They have recently added a
guidance note for GPs.
Follow us on Twitter!
Follow @CQCProf on Twitter to get regular updates about the work we are doing with professionals and provider organisations in England.
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