Monitor to examine financial health of care providers

7 Jan 14
Monitor is to regulate independent providers of NHS-funded care services for the first time in order to protect patients from financial failures, following the collapse of the Southern Cross care home group

By Vivienne Russell | 7 January 2013

Monitor is to regulate independent providers of NHS-funded care services for the first time in order to protect patients from financial failures, following the collapse of the Southern Cross care home group.

The health sector regulator announced yesterday that it was now accepting applications from independent operators. All providers that require a licence must be in possession of one by April 2014.

Although the licence will not cover quality of care provided, Monitor said it believed the process could ensure patients continue to receive essential services and that providers are paid a fair price.

Jason Dorsett, director at Monitor, said: ‘The Southern Cross scandal brought home to people how much uncertainty about the financial future of the organisation had a negative impact on patients and their families.

‘Our overriding duty is to protect patients, so we are not going to sit back and wait for financial failures at providers to disrupt essential services, we will actively monitor providers of these services, looking for financial problems and acting quickly to ensure those services continue.’

The licence will require the provider to be led by fit and proper persons and registered with the Care Quality Commission. Monitor will require independent organisations to submit financial information and is consulting on how it should assess financial risk.

Once this consultation is complete, Monitor will publish an update to its risk assessment framework, setting out how it will assess the financial stability of independent providers.

Southern Cross collapsed in July 2011 after it was unable to meet the rent payments for some of its 752 care homes.

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