Archived: InHealth Radiology Department

InHealth Radiology Department is operated by InHealth Limited.The centre was opened in November 2013 as part of a new private hospital development. The service offers private outpatients consultations, diagnostic tests and treatment for people of all ages including children under the age of 18. The service was established to serve the local community with diagnostic and screening facilities.

The service comprised of the following modalities: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT), Mommography, X-ray, Fluoroscopy and one ultrasound unit. A further ultrasound unit was supplied for the the outpatients department and two portable ultrasound units for threatres and outpatients departments.

We inspected the diagnostic and outpatient department using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the unannounced inspection on 3 July 2019.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

This was our first inspection of the service since the service opened in November 2013. We rated it as Good overall.

We found the following areas of good practice:

• The service provided mandatory training in key skills to all staff and overall staff were compliant with most of their training.
• Staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns, record incidents and report them.
• The service managed patient safety incidents well. Staff recognised incidents and reported them for investigations. Learning from incidents was shared well within the team and across the organisation to improve the service.
• Equipment was regularly serviced, cleaned and staff conducted daily quality assurance checks.
• The service had effective systems for identifying and managing risks.
• Staff understood their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. They knew how to support patients who lacked capacity to make decisions and their care. Consent was recorded in line with national guidance.
• Policies and procedures were up to date and reflected best practice and national guidance.
• Patients received care from all appropriate professionals and provided care in a timely way.
• Staff involved patients and those close to them in decisions about their care. Feedback from patients was consistently positive and any negative feedback was reviewed and disemminated and improvements made.
• Patients could access the service when they needed it. Appointments were flexible to meet the needs of patients who were working or had other responsibilities, there were no waiting lists.
• Senior leaders and staff strived for continuous learning, service improvement and innovation.

However, some areas needed further improvement:

• Medicines were not always checked and replaced.
• We were not assured that staff understood ‘Gillick’ competencies for patients under the age of 18.

Dr Nigel Acheson

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals