Mike Richards to become first chief inspector of hospitals

Mike Richards to become first chief inspector of hospitals: Doctor credited with major progress in cancer care now charged with improving hospital standards
A doctor credited with instigating significant improvements in NHS cancer care has been appointed as the first chief inspector of hospitals, a post David Cameron suggested be created after the Mid Staffs scandal.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, who was the government's cancer tsar from 1999-2012, will be responsible for ensuring that hospitals across England are delivering safe, compassionate, high-quality care.
David Prior, chairman of the NHS regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC), where Richards will be based, said the inaugural inspector would play a vital role in improving hospitals' care and performance.
Richards will head a team of specialist inspectors who will visit hospitals where concerns have been raised about standards and how patients are treated as well as regional teams of inspectors.
He will also have the difficult task of devising the new system of rating acute and mental health hospitals' performance demanded by health secretary Jeremy Hunt in a way that also commands the confidence of NHS bosses whose organisations will be monitored more closely than ever before.
Richards, an ex-breast cancer oncologist, will join the CQC from NHS England, where he has been leading efforts to reduce avoidable mortality from big killers such as cancer, heart disease and stroke.
Don Berwick, the ex-healthcare adviser to president Barack Obama whom Cameron has asked to review patient safety in the NHS, said: "It is crucial to the success of the chief inspector of hospitals that the inspector be trusted by clinical leaders, staff, and managers throughout the NHS. Mike Richards perfectly fits that bill; he is ideally equipped by background, achievements, and personality to engender trust between managers and clinicians" The Guardian