Inspectors Express ‘Deep Concerns’ Over England’s ‘Gridlocked’ Health System

Health inspectors have published a damning report on England’s struggling health and social care system.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) briefing — “The state of health care and adult social care in England 2021-22” — said the system was in “gridlock”, with many patients facing long waits for emergency, urgent and elective care.

Staff shortages across health and social care were “at the heart of these problems,” the agency stated.

The CQC’s main role is to inspect, grade and regulate healthcare providers in England. So far this year, it’s taken enforcement action at around a quarter of services it’s inspected, according to industry publication HSJ.

In the report, CQC leaders said particular types of care were facing more serious quality issues than others, with the agency expressing “deep concern” over maternity and mental health services.

The pandemic has been an major factor in the poor performance of England’s National Health Service in recent years, with covid-19 related absence exacerbating existing staff shortages.

Major bottlenecks in the flow of patients in and out of hospitals have emerged more recently, with a lack of available beds making it hard for ambulances to convey patients to emergency departments.

A lack of available social care beds means doctors often can’t discharge elderly and vulnerable patients quickly, even when they are medically fit to leave hospital care. Demand for understaffed services like care homes far exceeds capacity, which remains vulnerable to covid-19 outbreaks and staff absence.

Although the pandemic has put intense pressure on England’s health and social care sector, experts say the disease has exacerbated — rather than caused — these kinds of problems.

Researchers from health think tank the Nuffield Trust recently said the health and care crisis was “years in the making.” Even without the pandemic, researchers estimated around 5 million people would still be waiting for non-urgent procedures like cataract surgery and hip replacements.

The latest figures show roughly 7 million people are currently on the list for this kind of procedure.

Nuffield Trust Deputy Director of Research, Sarah Scobie, said the CQC report painted a “familiar but deeply troubling picture” of a health and care system “on the brink.”

She added: “Progress to plug severe staffing gaps across health and care and the effects of years of underinvestment have left the service ill-equipped to work through the backlog it already had, let alone the sharp increases in waits we have seen since the pandemic.”

NHS Providers interim chief inspector Saffron Cordery said: “The regulator’s hard-hitting report makes clear that people’s care is affected by chronic staff shortages across the health and care system and must be a wake-up call for the government.”

She expressed concern that the political turbulence currently facing the country was a distraction for leaders who “ought to be focussed on fixing the big issues and problems affecting the National Health Service and social care, and ultimately patients.”