The BAHRS provided feedback to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on its new strategy https://www.cqc.org.uk/news/stories/cqc-launches-strategy-consultation-%E2%80%93-we-want-hear-what-you-think

The four themes in the draft strategy are:

• People and communities: We want our regulation to be driven by people’s experiences and what they expect and need from health and care services. We’ll focus on what matters to the public, and to local communities, when they access, use, and move between services.
• Smarter regulation: We want our assessments to be more flexible and dynamic. We’ll update ratings more often, so everybody has an up-to-date view of quality. Being smarter with data means our visits will be more targeted, with a sharper focus on what we need to look at.
• Safety through learning: We want all services to have stronger safety cultures. We’ll expect learning and improvement to be the primary response to all safety concerns in all types of service. When safety doesn’t improve, and services don’t learn lessons, we’ll take action to protect people.
• Accelerating improvement: We want to do more to make improvement happen. We’ll target the priority areas that need support the most. We want to see improvement within individual services, and in the way they work together as a system to make sure people get the care they need.

The BAHRS supports the strategy and, in particular, smarter regulation but feels strongly that in-person inspections of facilities that provide hair transplant surgery should occur at the time of the initial registration application and at suitable intervals thereafter rather than ‘virtual’ inspections.

The BAHRS offered to work with CQC to improve regulation in the hair restoration surgery field.