This story was first published in digitalhealth.net

Following a damning report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Jeremy Hunt has written to independent healthcare providers ordering urgent action on patient safety.
The Health and Social Care Secretary said that independent hospitals needed to ‘get their house in order and improve safety’, giving chief executives of independent healthcare providers two weeks to respond and set out what action they will take.
The CQC rated a third of independent hospitals as ‘requires improvement’ following examples of poor practice and unsafe care, citing patient safety as the biggest concern it had.
Hunt said: “If the sector is to partner with the NHS and benefit from our world-leading medical training, we need urgent assurances that the independent sector will get its house in order on safety, as well as a commitment to take rapid action to match the NHS’s world-recognised progress on transparency.”
This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
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