Following on from my recent post regarding the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman, I had an unexplained “compulsion” (!) to double-check the CQC rating of my mother’s care home. Going on to their website, I was surprised to find that they had conducted a new inspection at the beginning of the year which was published at the end of February.
Having read the report thoroughly, it only seems to touch very briefly (three sentences!) on my issue with this care-provider, to the extent where I wonder if they have actually been given the full story. My husband phoned the CQC just before Christmas and they took a note of our concerns, but said that they were unable to do anything immediately but that we would be contacted prior to the next inspection so that they could go in with the full facts. We were not contacted (hence my surprise at the newly-published report).
I now feel that I should contact the CQC, but wonder if they will be “interested”? Has anyone contacted them in these sort of circumstances? If so, I would be very interested to hear what sort of response you got.
Pennie
I have contacted them a number of times, about son and mum. Usually they pass my concerns to the local inspector who then rings me herself.
I think they would be willing to listen to you.
They actively encourage it! Even whistle blowing by staff and public
https://www.cqc.org.uk/contact-us
UPDATE:
Just thought I would let you know that I did, in fact, phone the CQC last week and had several quite long conversations with their call handler and subsequently an inspector.
I still don’t believe that the recent inspection covered satisfactorily the issue I had raised, but the CQC were very open in telling me that I could make a complaint to them if I was still dissatisfied.
With regard to my ongoing issues with the care-provider, the inspector said that if I wished to take it further I should approach the Local Government Ombudsman.
All in all, quite impressed with the service I got (having half-expected the usual “fob off”!).
Pennie
I don’t know about the CQC listening to you but I put in a complaint to them about patient transport and copied it to the ambulance service and I certainly got a quick response from the ambulance service doing it this way round. I think these days they are quite responsive to whistle blowers having had several high profile embarrassments in the last few years.