Hospital inspections are bad for patients because they divert staff away from giving basic care, a new study indicates. A major review of NHS trusts found the rate of potentially dangerous falls and bedsores tends to be worse in the aftermath of a visit by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) than they otherwise would be.

Since 2013, the watchdog has undertaken longer and more complex inspections of hospitals at least once every three years.

Teams now assess trusts against more than 150 criteria and then publish reports grading a hospital either Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate.

The new study by the University of York suggests that managers’ - whose careers often depend on achieving a decent rating - are devoting increasing time and resources into preparing for inspections, with the added costs ranging between £169,000 and £420,000 per visit.

In order to gauge the effect of these multi-day visits on care, the researchers analysed rates of falls resulting in harm to patients and rates of pressure ulcers following treatment at more than 150 hospitals.

Both criteria are considered a good bellwether for the quality of nursing quality.

While both measures are gradually improving over time in most trusts, the rate of improvement slowed following an inspection.