Everlight Radiology Limited (London - Head Office)

Updated 17 November 2022

Everlight Radiology Reporting Limited, (London Head Office) provides teleradiology reporting services to NHS hospitals across the United Kingdom (UK), including plain film, computerised tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as well as quality assurance monitoring for ultrasound screening. The service operates 24-hours, seven days a week and 365 days a year. Reporting is available for urgent daytime and out of hours cases, in addition to routine and backlog reporting. The service provides audit and second opinion reporting for both adults and children.

The provider has other offices in the UK that are registered with CQC and international offices that do not fall under our regulatory powers. While this inspection did not include the provider’s other UK locations, and international offices are outside of our scope, we reference them in some contexts as a number of teams and services are shared with the head office location.

This service employs 38 radiologists who are registered with the General Medical Council as specialists or with the Royal College of Radiologists. Radiologists can work from home using equipment approved and maintained by the provider or from the nine fully equipped reporting rooms on site.

The service provides diagnostic imaging services on a remote basis, which means patients do not attend the location and staff have no contact with patients. All patient care and contact is made by the NHS trust responsible for their treatment.

The location had not been inspected since its registration on 3 February 2022. This was the first time the service had been inspected and rated. We inspected the service using the Teleradiology core service framework.

Updated 17 November 2022

TThis is the first time we have rated this service. We rated it as good because:

• The service had enough staff to provide a safe service. Staff understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service managed safety incidents well and learnt lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
• The provider had systems to ensure reporting radiologists had appropriate equipment provided.
• The provider monitored the effectiveness of the service. There were effective systems to act on urgent and emergency referrals. There were escalation processes for reporting radiologists in the event of a significant finding. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients and had access to good information.
• Referrers could access the service when they needed it and received the report within agreed timeframes.
• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s strategy and vision, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with their referring organisations and all staff were committed to improving services.

However:

• The service’s did not undertake Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for non clicnial staff who had access to patient identifiable information.
• Non-clinical staff did not undertake safeguarding level one training in line with the intercollegiate document.

Updated 17 November 2022