How does the health and Social Care Act 2012 safeguard individuals?

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 was introduced in order to provide a more coherent and coordinated system of health and social care in England. The act also included some new measures to safeguard the rights of patients and service users.

One of the key ways in which the act safeguards individuals is by establishing the role of the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC is an independent body that monitors and inspects health and social care services to ensure that they are meeting essential standards of quality and safety.

The CQC has a range of enforcement powers that it can use if it finds that a service is not meeting these standards. For example, it can impose conditions on a service’s registration, or it can suspend or cancel a service’s registration altogether.

Another way in which the act safeguards individuals is by giving patients and service users a right to complain if they feel that they have not received a good standard of care. complaints can be made to the CQC or to the provider of the service.

The act also requires providers of health and social care services to carry out regular risk assessments of the risks that their services pose to patients and service users. These risk assessments must be made available to the CQC upon request.

Finally, the act requires providers of health and social care services to have regard to the need to promote and protect the safety of patients and service users when making decisions about the design, delivery and management of their services.

In summary, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 contains a number of measures that safeguard the rights of patients and service users. These measures include the establishment of the CQC, the giving of patients and service users a right to complain, and the requirement for providers of health and social care services to carry out risk assessments and have regard to the need to promote and protect the safety of patients and service users.