What's it all for?: reducing unnecessary bureaucracy in regulation
This report looks systematically at the overlaps and duplications which exist in the requirements of key statutory and voluntary regulators, auditors, inspectorates and accreditation agencies with a remit for healthcare organisations in England.
This report presents work undertaken by the Provider Advisory Group (PAG) in the area of healthcare regulation. Our premise has been to assume nothing, and we have worked to challenge both objectives and strategy from the perspective of the organisations that deliver care in the NHS and independent sectors. We recognise the value of regulation in the high-risk world of healthcare, but challenge its value when it becomes disproportionate and repetitive.
Inevitably, this is a retrospective analysis and for practical reasons its coverage is limited. So, this report does not explicitly include areas such as social care or children’s services, even though these are often important considerations for healthcare providers. This report draws on the experiences of NHS organisations and independent sector providers of how these different systems operate at the front line. The primary focus of the report is on acute and mental health sector providers, but the messages are as relevant to other sectors of healthcare, including the growing numbers of community and primary care providers. It makes recommendations which should benefit all healthcare organisations and ultimately patients.
