A guide to healthcare regulators in the United Kingdom and how you can use regulator ratings to inform discussions with your consultant.
National Regulators
Healthcare Improvement Scotland
The Quality Improvement Authority (Northern Ireland)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) (England)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the regulator of all healthcare and social care services in England. It inspects every hospital, including those run by private healthcare providers, and provides a rating for how effective and safe that hospital is. It looks at five key areas when inspecting hospitals: whether the services are safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led.
The overall CQC rating is very useful for comparing different hospitals, and the ratings in each inspection area show where the hospital is doing well or needs to improve.
Private sector hospitals with lower scores are likely to have developed an action plan for making improvements. You should ask your consultant or the hospital about areas for improvements before making final treatment choices.
Below you can compare the CQC ratings of hospitals across England by clicking labels and graphs to filter and refine your search.
When comparing, it’s helpful to remember that CQC ratings for NHS hospitals will cover all services delivered at that site, including services such as A&E which are not typically delivered in independent hospitals.
CQC ratings of hospitals (England)
Other organisations involved in private patient quality of care
If you would like to know more about how the healthcare sector manages care and safety, in the healthcare market, including at private hospitals, you might want to visit these websites:
