England's out-of-hours providers must register with the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission has announced the completion of registration for independent out-of-hours medical services.

Out of the forty eight providers in the group, all have now been successfully registered with the commission, apart from one. No registered provider has been given any compliance conditions.

Last May, the government agreed to the CQC’s request to delay by one year the registration of primary care services including GPs. However, because the CQC felt that out-of-hours providers were a higher risk group it was decided that they would be registered this year as planned.

A range of activities were held with providers to ensure they could be successfully registered and included site visits, interviews with registered managers and detailed discussions with providers.

By law, out-of-hours- service providers in England must be registered with CQC to provide care services. To be registered, they must meet the essential standards of quality and safety which CQC will constantly monitor them against.

Cynthia Bower, chief executive of CQC said: “I am pleased to announce that CQC has successfully completed registration of out-of-hours providers in England.

“We will monitor these services, carrying out inspections and using our enforcement powers to investigate poor care and protect people who use services.

“We have strived to make the process for this group of registration as streamlined as possible and the lessons learned will greatly aid the work we are doing in registration of all GP practices in England next year.”

Photo: Cynthia Bower, chief executive of CQC