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Conservatives
Will legislate to reform and rationalise the ‘outdated system’ of professional regulation in healthcare, extend the CQC’s remit to services commissioned by councils and create an NHS ‘independent healthcare safety investigations body’.
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Labour
New quality, safety and excellence regulator – NHS Excellence’. Will support NHS whistleblowers to make sure health service staff are ‘able to speak up’. Attacking NHS staff will be made an ‘aggravated criminal offence’.
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Liberal Democrats
Give the NHS a legal duty to identify carers and develop a carer’s passport scheme to inform carers of their NHS rights, such as flexible visiting hours and access to support.
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UKIP
Manifesto acknowledges that ‘GPs are grappling with over-regulation,’ and claims it will absolish the CQC and introduce a new inspection regime, which would include ‘greater public accountability, extra protection for whistle-blowers, and increased scrutiny.’ Also pledges to end appraisals and revalidation work that goes beyond that deemed necessary by the GMC, and reduce the burden of data collection and target chasing.
Pulse reality check
The Conservatives plan to persist with reforms that could see the GMC merged with its nursing equivalent. An independent safety body may be a good idea on paper, but do we really need yet another regulator? It would have been nice to see something on making the CQC fit for purpose, but perhaps that’s too much to ask.
This is part of a series of articles where Pulse reality checks all the manifesto promises from the main parties and their significance for GPs. Click here for all our Election 2017 coverage.
