[Clinic name]
Controlled document
[Address]
[Registration or licence number]
CQC inspection checklist
1Before the call comes
- Check your registration details and contacts with CQC are current, so the assessment email reaches the right person.
- Name who answers for each key question, and who holds the evidence for it.
- Read the evidence categories CQC prioritises for your sector.
- Keep a one-page summary of how your service runs, and what has improved this year.
2Safe
- Your last three incidents, what you learned and what changed.
- Safeguarding leads named, trained and known to staff.
- Prescribing and medicines checks you can show, not describe.
- A record of who accessed patient records, and why.
3Effective
- Five consultations a reviewer could read cold, signed and dated.
- How consent is taken, recorded and revisited.
- The guidelines your care follows, and how you know it does.
- One outcome you measure, and how it has moved.
4Caring and Responsive
- How fast you answer patients, as a number.
- How a patient who does not speak English is looked after.
- Feedback received this quarter, and what you changed because of it.
- Complaints, each acknowledged, investigated and closed, in a summary you could send within 28 days.
5Well-led
- Governance meetings minuted, with actions that close.
- The reports leaders read each week.
- Staff who can say how they raise a concern.
- Records that are accurate, complete, contemporaneous and secure.
6What a CQC inspector may ask
- Show me what you learned from your last incident. What to show, the sequence of events, the review, and what changed afterwards.
- How do you know your records are contemporaneous? What to show, notes made at the time, signed, with any change visible.
- How do patients consent, and how is that recorded? What to show, what the patient was told, when they agreed, and where it is written.
- How quickly do you respond to patients? What to show, a number, and the threads behind it.
- How do you look after patients who do not speak English? What to show, conversations and information in the patient's own language.
- How do you make sure prescribing is safe? What to show, checks before prescribing, and a record of what was signed.
- Who can see patient records, and how would you know? What to show, roles, access controls and an access log.
- How do leaders know how the service is performing? What to show, the reports leaders read, and the decisions they led to.
AAppendix, One page per key question
- A.1Key question ______ The claim in one sentence ______
- A.2Quality statements it rests on ______
- A.3What changed for people, with a number ______
- A.4What a patient said, in their words ______
- A.5Where an inspector can see it live ______
- A.6What we will improve next ______