CQC defends rating of Hinchingbrooke as “inadequate”

MPs have asked for more evidence to resolve a dispute over the care quality rating of “inadequate” conferred on a privately run NHS hospital.

Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust, which is managed under contract by the private firm Circle, was heavily criticised in a recent report by the Care Quality Commission.1 2 But the trust’s chief executive, Hisham Abdel-Rahman, told the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts on 2 February that the report was “problematic” and contained many errors.

He said, “We sent them [the CQC] 300 factual inaccuracies. They agreed with 65% of those, but despite that they did not change the rating.” He said that there were “good explanations” for some of the incidents seen by the CQC during its inspections, but the regulator …