Inspecting and regulating care

By inspecting care we help to ensure that healthcare services are meeting the required standards of care, that good practice is identified and areas for improvement are addressed.

Our inspectors undertake announced and unannounced inspections of healthcare services.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland carries out a programme of inspections to provide assurance that the care of older people in acute hospitals is of a high standard. We are also responsible for the inspection and regulation of all independent healthcare services in Scotland.

The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate’s focus is to reduce the risk of healthcare associated infection to patients. It does this by inspecting all NHS acute hospitals in Scotland against the NHS QIS Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) Standards (2008).

We publish all our inspection reports from these three areas of inspection.

Older people care inspection

NHS staff member and older patient laughing
Royal Alexandra Hospital
25 April 2012

HEI inspection

HEIForth Valley Royal Hospital
14 May 2012

Published resources

Browse healthcare improvement resources:

Independent care inspection

independent healthcare
PiC Ayr Clinic
02 May 2012