The introduction of a new "super-regulator" for health has been heralded as "tremendous".
Baroness Young of Old Scone, chairwoman of the newly formed Care Quality Commission (CQC), pledged tough regulation and action on health organisations which fail to meet standards.
The CQC replaces the three different quangos which previously covered all health services including care homes.
The Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health Act Commission will now be merged into the 'umbrella' organisation.
And the CQC will now have responsibility to register all dentists, GPs, hospitals, care homes and mental health trusts.
The watchdog has also been given enhanced powers to prevent poor standards of care, as seen with incidents like Mid Staffordshire Hospital.
Baroness Young told the BBC that the strength of the CQC was "tremendous".
"We are bringing what everybody would acknowledge as tough and very active regulators from right across all of health and social care," she stated.
She said that the new regulator would offer the public a "joined up" service.
"We have new enforcement powers that we are determined to use, in spite of speculation that we won't.
"We are committed to faster action, to making sure that we get early warning from a whole variety of sources. Not just data but also our own inspections.
"I have huge confidence in the organisation and the powers that it has got."
But Michael Summers, vice chairman of the Patients Association, stated his concern over the new regulator's approach to self-assessment.
He told the BBC: "Obviously we welcome the Care Quality Commission because they will take over where the Healthcare Commission left off.
"But what really concerns us is that the new commission is really not very much different from the old one.
"I have read the material that the commission has issued, and whilst it is welcome, frankly we are still left with self-assessment by hospitals.
"Self-assessment is partly responsible for what went on at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells and at Mid Staffordshire.
"There was little or no action by the strategic health authority, little or no action by Monitor – the group responsible for foundation hospitals. They sat back and watched over a period of years nothing being done."
