Will the Minister confirm that it is the intention of Healthcare Inspectorate Wales to inspect all NHS services and independent healthcare providers against the same standards, policies, guidance and regulations applicable to each sector and when they may expect to have completed this exercise?
Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) is an independent body that helps organisations in Wales to identify and meet the challenges they are facing including maintaining quality standards during increased demand.
As an independent organisation, they devise their own work plan that is not influenced by Welsh Government. I welcome the scrutiny that HIW provides to organisations when they inspect them.
The legislation underpinning HIW inspections of NHS services and independent healthcare providers are different, and there are no current plans to change this. Within the independent sector, HIW act as a regulator and use both frequency rules and risk to determine the programme of work.