Inspectors on defensive

The National Association of Inspection and Registration Officers
has defended the regulatory system against attack from the
Independent Health-care Association .

The IHA described the current system as ‘an overly bureaucratic,
prescriptive and ineffective regulatory environment for health and
social care’.

NAIRO said the government had confirmed that the primary aims of
the regulatory system were ‘by and large being achieved’.

A NAIRO statement expressed concern that ‘at a time when the
government has initiated a fundamental review of the regulatory
system, such inaccurate statements are made with no tangible
evidence to support them.’

But Barry Hassell, chief executive of the IHA, criticised dual
registration of care homes. ‘For every local authority and district
health authority…there is a unit imposing its own subjective
standards.’