In over the summer of 2021, the CQC asked 73 trusts about their approaches to longer waiting lists and how they were considering people’s care in a “fair and equal way”. Their aim was to gauge Trusts’ assessments of the challenges, such as the suspension of some elective care caused by increased pressure on hospital capacity during the pandemic, and other challenges such as the need for more extensive infection and control measures, an increase in the number and intensity of cleaning procedures, the use of personal protective equipment, and enhanced testing.

The delivery of healthcare, with its huge range of assessments, procedures and interventions is inherently risky. There’s lots of room for things to go wrong and for negative outcomes such as poor user experience, harm or even death to occur, so it’s unsurprising that healthcare organisations are increasingly being recognised as “High-Reliability Organisations” (HROs) – organisations that succeed in avoiding catastrophes despite a high level of risk and complexity.

The NHS operates over 1,200 hospitals as well as nearly 3,000 other treatment facilities, many of which operate 24h hours a day, seven days a week, every week of the year. With an occupied floor area of the NHS is 24.3 million square metres (the equivalent of 3,400 football pitches), it’s safe to say that managing this estate and its related services is a huge challenge, but it’s one that’s crucial to the delivery of safe, efficient, high-quality clinical care.

It’s common knowledge that COVID-19 had a huge and unprecedented impact on healthcare, and quantifying that impact fell to the CQC. That’s why earlier this year, they issued a report on how urgent and emergency care services were affected by the pandemic during winter 2020 and discussed the actions they took to provide constructive support.

In 2020 COVID-19 threw public services across the UK into turmoil and forced them to rapidly adopt new ways of working and meet new regulations. Covid-related events and requirements changed so frequently that disruption itself became the only constant, with local authorities, housing service providers and even fire services being disrupted at multiple levels, along with the obvious and enormous impacts on the NHS and health service providers.

Change happens fast and so do risks, so how certain are you that your Trust’s BAF is actually up to the job?

The world has changed, and keeps changing. NHS and healthcare providers are continuously expected to deliver more for their money, even under unprecedented circumstances and in the midst of challenges that few could have foreseen.

Last week, the CQC issued a press release announcing that a Nottinghamshire care home had been fined over £150,000 for failing to protect its residents from avoidable harm, after a resident with a history of problematic and aggressive behaviour caused another resident to fall and sustain a head injury.

A great many Trusts are feeling daunted by the mammoth task of restoring normal services. We drew together some of the UK’s preeminent Healthcare Service experts for a comprehensive round-table discussion on Healthcare Service Restoration.