Review launched into Ofsted-style ratings for NHS facilities

The government is to assess the potential benefits of a new system of ratings for hospitals and care homes, akin to the setup education regulatory Ofsted has in place for schools.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has launched the review in a bid to end the "crisis" in standards of care that has arisen in certain parts of the health and social care system.

He observed that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) currently only measures whether minimum standards have been reached by NHS facilities, meaning it is difficult to tell how well a hospital is performing.

Recommendations will be accepted between now and the end of March 2013, but it has been stipulated that any new ratings system must be clear, simple and result in no increase in bureaucracy.

Mr Hunt said: "I am not advocating a return to the old star ratings – but the principle that there should be an easy-to-understand, independent and expert assessment of how well somewhere is doing … must be right."

This comes in the same week that the government named David Prior as its preferred candidate for the post of chair of the CQC.