CQC announces new inspection plan

A senior figure at the health regulator has accused it of ignoring concerns about some hospitals in England. Kay Sheldon, non-executive director of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) says it passed a number of hospitals as "safe" even though its own inspectors found serious problems.

In response, the CQC says it is committed to being an open and transparent organisation which makes sure people have the high quality care they expect.

The chief executive of CQC, David Behan, told the Today programme's John Humphrys about the new hospital inspection regime.

"We will introduce specialist inspectors and they will go unannounced; they will also carry out what I'm referring to as 'deep dives' where in effect, hospital teams will go into hospitals for perhaps up to 10 days and they'll have teams where we'll use current clinicians from the service to work alongside inspectors.

"We'll also use patients and patient representatives to speak to people, patients and their carers, so we have a view from patients, we have a view from doctors and nurses working in hospitals as well as from the management."

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday 27 March 2013.