Table 1.

The new regulatory model for assessing NHS acute hospitals in England.

Domains	Rating categories	Service areas	Organization of inspections
• Safety • Effectiveness • Caring • Responsiveness • Leadership	• Inadequate • Requires improvement • Good • Outstanding	• Children and young people • Maternity and gynaecology • Urgent and emergency services • Outpatients and diagnostic imaging • Surgery • Medical care, including older people’s care • Critical care • End of life care	• Large team • Sub-teams of 3–5 inspectors rate performance for each service area with regard to each domain. Sub-team membership: ^ Led by an experienced inspector employed by CQC ^ A doctor, a nurse, and a manager with experience of the area ^ Patient advocate, trainee doctor or nurse in some sub-teams • Typically 1–2 days inspection per hospital site. Announced in advance • Investigate pertinent issues (‘key lines of enquiry’), drawing on a generic list and statistics provided by CQC • Twice daily ‘corroboration’ discussion of likely ratings – within the sub-team and across the whole team • Optional unannounced follow-up visit to gather further data

NHS: National Health Service.