Commenting on the Care Quality Commission’s State of Care report, Nigel Edwards, Chief Executive of the Nuffield Trust said:
"The report highlights problems of variation and poor quality in health and social care, and that good leadership will be crucial in sorting this out. But we are concerned that it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit the best people to executive and director roles in many NHS organisations.
“The pressure to continue to improve standards is leading to a growth in nursing numbers and agency staff. This is causing significant financial problems for the NHS in the coming year and drawing much-needed resources away from other areas like mental health or GP services, putting at risk the ability to deliver an acceptable quality of care in the long run.
“The annual statement from our QualityWatch programme with the Health Foundation published last week found signs that growing pressures on health and social care are starting to push the big quality improvements of the past decade into reverse. This report echoes our concerns about the quality of mental health care, in particular about the pressure on inpatient beds leading to patients being admitted a long way from home.
This is causing significant financial problems for the NHS in the coming year and drawing much-needed resources away from other areas like mental health or GP services, putting at risk the ability to deliver an acceptable quality of care in the long run. Nigel Edwards, Chief Executive, Nuffield Trust
"The results of the CQC's inspections reveal particularly striking differences in care quality within hospitals. As we argued in our review of hospital ratings, conducted for the Secretary of State in 2012, providing a single overall rating for hospitals is difficult when different departments within the hospital can offer care to varying standards.”