13 June 2003
The new health service watchdog must be more objective, less prone to mistakes and more supportive than its predecessor, the NHS Confederation has warned.
The managers' body surveyed more than 40 NHS trusts where clinical governance had recently been reviewed by the Commission for Health Improvement.
The reviews will be taken over by the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection next April.
Though half the trusts believed Chi had accelerated improvement, the June 11 survey criticised the inspectorate's style, which the confederation insisted must not be replicated by Chai.
Many of the trusts complained that Chi's review process was too open to inspectors' personal interpretation, with inadequate transparency in their scoring criteria. This worried trusts as it impacted on their star rating.
Trusts added that the scoring system, verbal feedback and Chi's final report were often contradictory. Final reports were believed to accentuate the negative.
NHS Confederation chief executive Dr Gill Morgan said external review should not be an easy process. But she added: 'Our survey reveals there is more that could be done to ensure the time invested by trusts pays real dividends in helping NHS staff to deliver high-quality care.
'A key challenge for the new Chai will be to ensure that the review process is open and constructive, and that the results are robust.'
Chi welcomed the survey, though its deputy chief executive, Jocelyn Cornwell, noted the process had recently been redesigned.
'We recognise the review process can be painful. However, a great many trusts say that, although difficult, it produces fair and accurate representations of their organisation and leads to improvement,' she said.
PFjun2003
