The Healthcare Commission was a

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...

sponsored by the Department of Health of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. It was set up to promote and drive improvement in the quality of

health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health pr ...

and

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. It aimed to achieve this by becoming an authoritative and trusted source of information and by ensuring that this information is used to drive improvement. The Commission was abolished on 31 March 2009 and its responsibilities in England broadly subsumed by the

Care Quality Commission The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England. I ...

History

The legal name for the Healthcare Commission was the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (CHAI). It was created by the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003. The Healthcare Commission took over the role of the

Commission for Health Improvement The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) was a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department of Health of the United Kingdom from 2001 until 2004, when its functions were subsumed by the Healthcare Commission. CHI was established by ...

(CHI) on the 1 April 2004 and also assumed some of the responsibilities of the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) and the Audit Commission, as well as a number of additional functions. The Commission's chairman was Professor Sir Ian Kennedy and its chief executive was Anna Walker.

Peter Homa Peter Michael Homa is a British health service manager. He started work in the National Health Service in 1979 as a hospital porter after which he commenced the NHS National Management Training Scheme in London in 1981 and was chief executive a ...

the Chief Executive of the

was appointed as the first Chief Executive but resigned from the post at the request of the organisation's chairman Sir Ian Kennedy in April 2003. The

Health and Social Care Act 2008 The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (c 14) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Synopsis The Act was created on 11 March 2009 with the following regulated activities: * provision of health care to patients by a National Health Ser ...

replaced the Healthcare Commission, the

Commission for Social Care Inspection The Commission for Social Care Inspection was a non-departmental public body and the single, independent inspectorate for social care in England. Its sponsor department was the Department of Health of the United Kingdom government. It incorpora ...

and the

Mental Health Act Commission The Mental Health Act Commission was an NHS special health authority that provided a safeguard for people detained in hospital under the powers of the Mental Health Act 1983 in England and Wales. Mental health care is the only part of health care ...

with a single, integrated regulator for health and adult social care - the

. The Care Quality Commission began operating on 1 April 2009 as a

Functions

The Healthcare Commission had a role in promoting quality in healthcare through providing an independent assessment of the standards of services provided by the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

(NHS), private healthcare and voluntary organisations in

. The commission also had the responsibility of coordinating organisations that inspect, regulate or audit health bodies. In order to do this, it established the '' Concordat between bodies inspecting, regulating and auditing health or social care''. The Healthcare Commission aimed to promote improvement in the quality of NHS and independent healthcare across England and Wales. The Commission's main statutory functions in England were: * Assessing the management, provision and quality of NHS healthcare and public health services * Reviewing the performance of all NHS trusts and award an annual performance rating to each trust * Regulating the independent healthcare sector through registration, inspection, monitoring complaints and enforcement activities * Publishing information about the state of healthcare in England * Investigating serious failures in healthcare services * Independently reviewing patients' complaints about NHS services that have not been resolved by the trusts involved * Promoting the coordination of reviews and assessments carried out by the Commission and other regulatory organisations The Healthcare Commission had a limited role in Wales, complemented by that of Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, which is part of the

National Assembly for Wales The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Go ...

. The ability to inspect all sectors, provide guidance and act if that guidance is not acted on was possible because the Healthcare Commission was independent of the government.

Annual health check

For the first two years of its existence, the Healthcare Commission continued the annual reporting of NHS providers using star ratings where

NHS trust An NHS trust is an organisational unit within the National Health Services of England and Wales, generally serving either a geographical area or a specialised function (such as an ambulance service). In any particular location there may be several ...

s were awarded one, two or three stars based upon their performance measured against clinical targets. From 2006, an "annual health check" replaced the star ratings assessment system and looked at a much broader range of issues than the targets used previously. It sought to make much better use of the data, judgements and expertise of others to focus on measuring what matters to people who use and provide healthcare services. Trusts had to declare their compliance with the core standards set out in '' Standards for Better Health'', published by the Department of Health in 2004. The overall aim of the new assessment of performance, and the information gained through the process, was to promote improvements in healthcare. The annual health check process was designed to use views of patients and users of services as well as robust data sources for the arms-length monitoring of clinical performance. This lessening of the target setting by Whitehall was in line with the light-touch strategy set out by

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony ...

in his 2005 budget and compatible with the vision proposed by

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

at the 2006

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

conference. It also aimed to help people to make better informed decisions about their care, promote the sharing of information and give clearer expectations on standards of performance. The new ratings effectively graded NHS organisations on the quality of services and use of resources with services deemed to be one of four levels: Weak - Fair - Good - Excellent. Trusts that met the clinical targets used in the previous star ratings achieved a rating of Fair. Good and Excellent ratings were awarded to organisations that could demonstrate that they had processes in place to improve their services.

References

External links

* *{{cite web , title=Annual report 2008/09 , url=http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0809/hc07/0718/0718.pdf , publisher=Healthcare Commission , date=14 July 2009 , accessdate=9 January 2013 Defunct non-departmental public bodies of the United Kingdom government National Health Service (England) 2009 disestablishments in the United Kingdom