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Rachel Power, Chief Executive of the Patients Association, said: “The State of Care report shows that the NHS and local authorities are overwhelmingly delivering health and social care to a high standard. Although headlines in the media, and callers to our helpline, commonly talk about the occasions when things go wrong, it’s good to be reminded that these are relatively unusual.

“However, today’s report also doesn’t flinch from pointing out the room for improvement that exists in some areas, and the mounting pressures on the system, including financial constraints, demographic change and the ongoing need for a new solution for funding social care. The dedicated clinicians and health and social care professionals who have maintained quality for this long will not be able to compensate indefinitely for a system under ever-growing strain.

“We know that accessing some services is becoming more difficult, with waiting times increasing and CCGs imposing new bars and caps on certain types of treatment and care. The CQC’s warning today that the system cannot withstand the mounting pressures indefinitely while still maintaining quality is highly timely, and we hope that the Chancellor will take it into account ahead of this autumn’s Budget. We can see that our health and social care system can deliver to a high standard if given the resources – the Government must ensure that it does not start to falter at scale for lack of funds.”

The full CQC State of Care report can be found here: https://www.cqc.org.uk/news/stories/most-people-are-getting-good-safe-care-future-quality-precarious