Head of Care Quality Commission quits following damning report CQC was established in April 2009 and was formed by the merger of three healthcare regulators. The report pointed out that "Morale was relatively low" at CQC and that "The first three years have been difficult." "With hindsight, both the Department and CQC underestimated the scale of the task of establishing a new regulator," the government department review found. Even so, CQC could have done more to manage operational risks. "The early transition period has been difficult and lessons will need to be learned," the review concluded. CQC is meant to monitor abortion clinics, along with other care providers. Una O'Brien, the permanent secretary at the Department of Health, who led the review, said: "Over the last nine months, CQC has made significant improvements in performance and in focus on core purpose. However, the evidence has clearly shown there is more work to do to build on recent successes to ensure the organisation has the capability and capacity to respond to patient, public and parliamentary expectations in the future. Lessons need to be learned from the performance shortcomings of the early years. The leadership of the organisation are willing to listen and act on issues raised about the organisation's performance. CQC's management of whistleblowers has faced fierce criticism in the past, after the BBC's Panorama programme showed abuse at the Winterbourne View hospital near Bristol. The programme was approached by a whistleblower after CQC ignored complaints about the private hospital. The report noted that "The number of whistleblowing contacts more than tripled" at the end of 2011, "although the number of substantive follow-ups as remained relatively stable." Last September the Prime Minister endorsed a critical report by the health select committee, which accused the regulator of neglecting its core duty of scrutinising patient care in favour of bureaucratic "registration" of care providers.