Specialist Acute Hospitals

Specialist hospitals usually focus on a single speciality, for example ophthalmic or termination of pregnancy services. 

There are many more specialist independent hospitals rated by the CQC (515), compared to NHS specialist hospitals (32). Such imbalanced numbers make like-for-like comparisons difficult. However, we can see that over 80% of services in both sectors are rated either good or outstanding. 

The number of specialist independent sector acute hospitals rated by the CQC has grown considerably since 2018, from under 20 in early 2018 to 515 today. Consequently, the significant change in the number of locations with ratings makes it difficult to make judgements about trends in quality over that period, in a similar way to the trendline for non-specialist hospitals.  

Sector improvement example – Medical Practitioners Assurance Framework (MPAF)

The MPAF, launched in 2019 and refreshed in 2022 was developed by IHPN, member organisations and key stakeholders to support improvement, consistency, and transparency in the oversight of medical practitioners working in the independent sector. It has since been adopted by CQC into its inspection methodology and used by the NHS through the 2022-23 Standard Contract.