Health and social care regulation is ‘expensive and cumbersome,' a professional body has warned today.

In a new report, the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) called for ‘urgent' reforms to regulations to enable health and social care systems meet future challenges such as an ageing population and staff shortages.

‘Piecemeal adjustments to health and care regulation have, over time, made the system cumbersome, ineffective and expensive,' said PSA chief executive Harry Cayton.

‘Every part of our health and care system is changing in order to meet future needs. 

‘If patients are to benefit, regulation must undergo radical change too.

‘Regulation is asked to do too much - and to do things it should not do. 

‘We need to understand that we cannot regulate risk out of healthcare and to use regulation only where we have evidence that it actually works. 

‘Ironically, the regulations that are meant to protect patients and service users are distracting professionals from this very task.'

The report, Rethinking Regulation, called for less but better regulation, including transparent benchmarking to set standards and a ‘proper' risk assessment model.

It also recommended having shared objectives for system and professional regulators, and for the scope of regulation to be reduced so it focuses more on what works.