The health watchdog has paused its inspections of local NHS authorities after a review found significant failings.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) will stop its assessments of England’s integrated care systems (ICS), which oversee NHS services across 42 local areas, for six months, in order to focus on its backlog of hospital and care home inspections.

A review by Dr Penny Dash, a local NHS chair, into the CQC’s failings, will set out seven recommendations to improve, including to stop ICS reviews.

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, said patient safety must be “overhauled” as he ordered a further review.

He has now asked Dr Dash to look into the “overly complex system” that currently regulates health services in England.

There are currently six different organisations dedicated to patient safety and that make recommendations for improvements to the NHS.

Officials said recent inquiries such as into the infected blood scandal had highlighted how multiple organisations had created a complicated system and a lack of clear leadership.

Mr Streeting said patient safety was “the bedrock of a healthy NHS” and that the Government was “taking steps to reform the CQC, to root out poor performance and ensure patients can have confidence in its ratings once again”.

“This Government will never turn a blind eye to failure,” he said.

“An overly complex system of healthcare regulation and oversight is no good for patients or providers. We will overhaul the system to make it effective and efficient, to protect patient safety.”

Dr Dash’s final report into the CQC echoed her interim findings, which found hospitals and care homes left uninspected for up to 10 years, if at all.

The report left Mr Streeting “stunned” as he declared the regulator “not fit for purpose” in July.

The review spoke to hospital inspectors who had claimed to have never been inside a hospital, and a care home inspector that claimed never to have met a person with dementia.

Dr Dash, the chair of the North West London Integrated Care Board, said her final report “reiterates the findings of my interim report while providing further detail and analysis of the CQC’s performance”.

“It builds on insights and perspectives from patients and users, and a wide range of health and social care providers as well as senior leaders from the NHS and local authorities,” she added.

The taxpayer-funded watchdog was established in 2009 by Gordon Brown’s government but a number of scandals have occurred under its watch.

‘Turning around’ regulator

Last week, it was announced that Sir Julian Hartley, the chief executive of membership group NHS Providers and former hospital boss, would be taking on the role of chief executive with the task of “turning around” the regulator.

While its performance has already come under scrutiny from Dr Dash, she will now review safety across the NHS and the roles of six separate organisations.

This includes the CQC, the National Guardian’s Office, the think tank Healthwatch, Health Services Safety Investigation Body, the Patient Safety Commissioner, and NHS Resolution.

Ian Dilks, chair of CQC, said: “We welcome the final part of Dr Penny Dash’s review – we accept the findings and we will address the recommendations with urgency.

“Today also sees the publication of the review we commissioned from Professor Sir Mike Richards – we are extremely grateful to Sir Mike for his helpful work and will be using his recommendations to help us respond to the serious failings identified by Dr Penny Dash.

“His review also offers additional suggestions for improvement that we will be exploring as part of our wider recovery work.”