Protecting the Public the HPC way
Statistics from recent HPC Annual reports
2008: £3.76m spent. 108 allegations made by the public (25% of all allegations), but HPC only get round to considering 63 in the year, leaving 42% of allegations made by public unconsidered. This is building up a massive backlog. Only 18 (29%) of the allegations from the public that are considered are taken any further.
The rest of the money is spent processing allegations from Employers, the HPC itself through the Article 22(6) rule, others within the profession and a small amount from the police.
Out of £3.76m, only 18 allegations from public are found to have a case to answer.
2007: £2.9m spent, out of 78 allegations made by the public HPC only got round to considering 34. Of these only 12 were found to have a case to answer. 56% of the total allegations made by the public were not considered. Most of the allegations made by the public have not been heard within the year they were made. What protection is that?
Massive amount of money for not very much. Huge bureaucracy with an ever growing backlog of complaints. Year on year there are 30% more allegations made than cases considered. The waiting time is bound to rocket, or the costs will escalate even more. The vast majority of these allegations are made by employers, the HPC itself or from within the profession.
In this page we contrast two contradictory perspectives on the performance of the Health Professions Council that emerged recently, one compiled by an Alliance participant, the other reports an adulatory message from the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence [CHRE]
All I have is a voice to undo the folded lie.
W.H. Auden
eIpnosis is edited, maintained and © Denis Postle 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
Regulatory Excellence? Really?
Comments from the CHRE annual review of the HPC
News release
Wednesday 8 July 2009
HPC receives positive assurance from the health professions watchdog
The Health Professions Council (HPC) has demonstrated a commitment to continuous improvement of services in the latest report from the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE).
+The annual Performance Review highlighted that the HPC is a well-organised, efficient and cost-effective regulator. The review commended the Council for its continued effectiveness at communicating with its stakeholders, stating that it has ‘continued to display excellence and has even sought to enhance its work in this area’.
Anna van der Gaag, Chair of the HPC, commented:
ȁI am pleased to see that the review highlighted a number of areas which demonstrated excellence or good practice, notably our communication with the public through targeted campaign work, our proactive engagement with employers and our work in the devolved healthcare systems.
"Aspects of the Fitness to Practise function were also praised, specifically staff training, service standards, the regular updates provided to complainants and the free telephone number. Our continued commitment to service improvement throughout the organisation was also recognised."
HPC’s Chief Executive, Marc Seale, commented:
&We look forward to the publication of the CHRE’s annual report as we find it productive to have the benefit of an external review of our processes. The CHRE has raised some interesting points in this year’s report and we looking forward to working with them over the coming year.’
