The move is designed to free up staff time

The move is designed to free up health service staff so they can spend more time with patients.

At present, over 30 bodies can call on NHS Trusts to inspect performance. Many more can make visits.

The process will be streamlined so that they can now make joint inspections. "I want to free the NHS from inspection overload," said Lord Warner.

The government has asked the new NHS watchdog, the Healthcare Commission, to draw up a concordat with the main inspection, review and audit bodies.

Our aim is to coordinate inspections and follow up action Anna Walker, Healthcare Commission

These are: the National Audit Office, the Audit Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, the NHS Litigation Authority, the Health and Safety Executive, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, NHS Estates, the Mental Health Act Commission and Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board.

Together, they are responsible for monitoring various aspects of the NHS from spending to the quality of training for doctors.

Under the plans, they will work together to try to reduce the burden on NHS bodies.

Joint inspections

According to the Department of Health, they will be expected to carry out joint inspections and improve the way they share the information they collect.

They will also be expected to make fewer and more consistent recommendations on what actions trusts need to take.

They will publish the dates of the proposed inspections, to enable staff to plan ahead.

Ministers also want them to consider giving "inspection holidays" to high-performing NHS trusts.

Lord Warner said the move followed feed-back from NHS staff.

"The burden often associated with these inspections - lack of co-ordination amongst different inspecting bodies, duplication of information collected and the sheer number of visits - has been a key complaint of NHS staff," he said.

"This package of measures will mean staff spend less time ticking boxes and more time treating patients."

Anna Walker, chief executive of the Healthcare Commission chief executive, which will oversee the new approach backed the move.

"For the first time the main inspecting bodies in healthcare have agreed to work to a set of objectives which will help reduce the burden on doctors and nurses providing frontline care," she said.