The Health Secretary is set to respond to fears that patient care is poor in many care homes and hospitals by announcing a series of spot checks.

Andrew Lansley is due to announce, in a major speech, that a programme of unannounced checks by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which took place over the summer, are to be extended and he will promise tough action in circumstances where they find the standard of care to be unacceptable. He will say: “Where there is great care, we will celebrate it. But whenever there are pockets of poor performance, we will root it out.”

He says that around 50 hospitals, 500 care homes and 150 centres for people with learning difficulties will face the checks and ministers have told the CQC to get tough with those who fail, with action possibly leading to the closure of services if necessary.

In the same speech the health secretary is expected to announce a new scheme to assist hospitals which are struggling financially with a bail-out for about 50 NHS trusts with fresh support for those trusts which are being faced with bills from private finance initiative (PFI) schemes. This help follows an audit, ordered by the Department of Health, into the finances of NHS trusts throughout the country.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8849566/Hospitals-face-spot...