The CQC has appointed Professor Bola Owolabi, a practising GP and NHS England’s inequalities lead, as its new chief inspector of primary care following a damning review last year.
The role was abolished in 2023, when the chief inspectors of hospitals and primary care were merged under a new chief inspector of healthcare, but was reinstated following the review of the CQC’s functions in October last year.
Professor Owolabi is currently director of the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHS England, where she spearheaded the Core20PLUS5 approach, which was designed to reduce healthcare inequalities at a national and local level.
The review of the CQC, led by now NHS England chair Dr Peny Dash, concluded the CQC had ‘lost its credibility’ within the services and providers it inspects, and its ‘significant failings’ had led to ‘a deterioration’ in its ability to identify poor performance.
It recommended that it rebuild its expertise, concluding: ‘There is an urgent need to appoint highly regarded senior clinicians as chief inspector of hospitals and chief inspector of primary and community care.’
There will be four chief inspectors in total, with the remaining two leading on mental health, and adult social care and integrated care
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of CQC, said: ‘As we rebuild and develop the way that we work as a regulator, there has never been a clearer need for the thoughtful balance of clinical expertise, national leadership and understanding that Bola has shown in her work as a general practitioner and director of the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHS England.’
Professor Bola Owolabi said: ‘My passionate commitment to reducing inequalities in healthcare has guided my career, and I’m delighted that my new role will help independent regulation play a more central role in building a truly equitable health and care system that delivers for everyone, especially underserved communities.
‘As a practising GP, I’ll be drawing on personal experience to help ensure that CQC’s regulation supports primary medical services to provide the best possible care for people. My work on improving integrated person-centred care has also given me a real understanding of the opportunities presented by community services to improve lives and help people get well and stay well.’
Professor Owolabi will join CQC in the summer and will continue to work as a GP in the Midlands.
Very happy that Professor Owolabi is appointed. The NHS should be there for those that need it most and this is a signal that resources and energy will be directed toward our deprived primary care areas. CQC will I am sure now recognise that working in these areas brings extra challenges that must be taken into consideration with support not censure. This appointment seems to recognise this and I wish her the very best.
how did CQC manage to inspect GPs before appointing their first GPinspector?
Not sure how anyone else would know if practices were even normal.
In answer to DC early wave inspections didn’t have GP Specialist Advisors (as they were then known) My first practice inspection had administrator 1/2 my age & Practice Manager. Utterly pointless & suggestion made was exactly mirrored at my dentist’s practice! The head of CQC at the time wasn’t in first wave but much later with “hand picked” inspectors; I should know as met one of them. So pissed off at my inspection sought employment with CQC & did 33 inspections, some overseen by local LMC who always considered me fair & supportive. They have a huge amount of trust rebuilding to do & are not capable IMHO. Even when flagging serious concerns were slow to do anything