England’s healthcare regulators will start 2010 without chiefs

Barbara Young has announced that she is to stand down as chairwoman of England’s regulator of health and social care services at the end of another difficult week for healthcare regulation.

Her decision to go at the beginning of February leaves the Care Quality Commission with an acting chairwoman in its deputy, Jo Williams, until a replacement is found for Baroness Young. Furthermore Monitor, the regulator of NHS foundation trusts, looks set to enter the new year with neither a chairperson nor chief executive in place.

Baroness Young’s surprise decision to go came a week after the commission intervened at Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Inspections had …