The Healthcare Commission was a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department of Health of the United Kingdom.
[citation needed] The Commission's chairman was Professor Sir Ian Kennedy[2] and its chief executive was Anna Walker.
From 2006, an "annual health check" replaced the star ratings assessment system and looked at a much broader range of issues than the targets used previously.
It sought to make much better use of the data, judgements and expertise of others to focus on measuring what matters to people who use and provide healthcare services.
The annual health check process was designed to use views of patients and users of services as well as robust data sources for the arms-length monitoring of clinical performance.