Healthcare news: this week on the health pages

In the news this week - the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found that nearly a quarter of NHS services were failing to meet 'essential standards' in England and Wales.

Areas of particular concern centred on things including staffing levels, 'compromised' management of medicines, and record keeping.

The chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing is quoted as saying: 

It is shocking that more than one in four locations inspected in this report have failed to meet even essential standards of quality and safety… this presents a long overdue wake-up call for the Government. Those locations in question must be brought up to standard as a matter of urgency

The news of this research will no doubt be seized upon by the opposition, while providing the coalition plenty to think about when it comes to making improvements to the service. The health minister has responded to the CQC report saying that the government is "determined to drive up standards for everyone".

There is a good précis of the report's main points here. 

In other healthcare news, this time from a private health insurance perspective, HI magazine reports that "waiting times, patient experience and availability of drugs and treatments all set to worsen". The article says that these factors could see an uptick in demand for PMI - while the majority of  NHS bosses surveyed believe that waiting times will increase as financial pressure on the system continue.