Care home inspector arrested on bribery charge
A care home inspector who used to work for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has been arrested over bribery allegations.
The CQC regulates the health and social care sector and employs over 700 inspectors.
The individual has been accused of pressuring care homes into paying money in return for favourable reports after they had investigated a home.
Initially the allegations had been made directly to the CQC. They investigated the situation and found them to be substantiated. The CQC then sacked the care home inspector and reported them to the police.
The inspector has now been arrested on suspicion of bribery and money laundering. The City of London Police indicated that they will be working with the CQC to investigate the allegations.
It has not been confirmed how many care homes have been involved and what length of time the alleged bribery has been going on for. The police are appealing for anyone else in the care industry to come forward if they have experienced a similar situation.
The CQC have indicated that the care homes that have been affected have undergone a fresh inspection and that there were no other inspectors involved.
A spokesperson for the CQC said: “Our inspectors operate to extremely high standards of integrity and professionalism. Unfortunately, in any large workforce there is a risk that a tiny minority may act in a way that betrays the principles of their colleagues and of the organisation as a whole, which is what has happened here.”
Brain abnormalities that cause addiction can be managed.
Research from the University of Cambridge has suggested that the brain abnormalities seen in drug addicts can be effectively managed.
The researchers compared the brains of 50 cocaine and crack addicts with the brain of a nonaddicted sibling.
They found that the brain abnormalities were present in both siblings, indicating that their brains were ‘hard wired’ for addiction.
It had already been established that abnormalities in the brain is linked to an individual’s susceptibility to drug addiction. However, scientists did not know whether the drug had caused the abnormalities or whether they were already present in the brain before the person became addicted.
Dr Karen Ersche, who led the study, suggested that drug addiction should now be recognised as a disorder of the brain and not a lifestyle choice.
Dr Ersche added: “These brothers and sisters who don’t have addiction problems, what they can tell us is how they overcome these problems, how they manage self-control in their daily life.”
However, researchers concede that the abnormalities may develop as a result of the people growing up in the same household, rather than genetically. They argued that further long term research is needed to assess whether ‘nature or nurture’ causes the brain abnormalities.
Specialists have suggested that the research could potentially lead to a new way of treating addiction. They suggested that the non-addicted sibling offers a potential new way of helping the addicted sibling develop their self control and beat the addiction.