1 April 2010
The healthcare watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), has awarded Epsom, Sutton and St Helier hospitals a licence to provide services under a new set of tougher rules and regulations.
From today (1 April), all health and adult social care providers who provide regulated activities will be required by law to be registered with the CQC. To do so, providers, such as our Trust, must show they are meeting new standards of quality and safety.
The changes in regulations also give the CQC stronger enforcement powers than ever before. If a Trust is now found to be falling short of the standards, a warning notice will be issued. This can then escalate to a fine, prosecution, restrictions on activities or, in extreme cases, closure.
The regulator is also promising to take more account of the views of the public, and will begin gathering the views of local patient groups and ensuring that patients have greater involvement in inspections.
Chief Executive of the Trust, Samantha Jones said: "We are pleased to confirm that we are registered with the CQC under the new, tougher regulations.
"We welcome the challenge that the new standards will bring, as we know this can only help to ensure that people across the country get the high quality healthcare they deserve.
"And for our local patients, this is particularly good news as we were registered unconditionally, meaning that the CQC had no issues or concerns about the safety and quality of our care."
For some Trusts across the country, registration is conditional on further action being taken to address concerns about the safety of patient care.
