The Healthcare Commission

All Ramsay Hospitals are audited by the Healthcare Commission

The Healthcare Commission take responsibility for the registration and inspection of private and voluntary healthcare establishments, including independent hospitals.

The Commission measures independent healthcare organisations against a set of agreed minimum standards that they are not expected to operate below. Commission inspectors visit every organisation to ensure compliance with these standards.

In particular they are concerned that Hospital's policies and day to day operations meet the following fundamental Principles:

Patient centered services

Patient safety and quality assurance is at the centre of every activity.

Patient Information

Patients have clear and accurate information about the healthcare provider and the provider in turn listens to and feeds back information from patients.

Accountability

A registered person with each unit takes responsibility for ensuring that the regulations and standards are met to ensure patient safety quality.

Safety and quality assurance

A common theme across the standards is to address how safety and assurance can be achieved.

Consistency

The standards are based on the key principle that they must be comparable with the NHS.

Based on these inspections the Healthcare Commission has the ability to make judgments on the future of the unit, including ultimately cancellation of registration or prosecution.