Updated 8 July 2019
Cramlington magnetic resonance imaging centre, which is part of InHealth, was based within a host NHS trust based at Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital. The service was totally independent from the trust.
The service was registered to provide the following regulated activities:
Diagnostic and screening procedures.
The service had not previously been inspected.
The registered manager has been in post since June 2014. The unit opened in 2015.
Updated 8 July 2019
InHealth was established over 25 years ago and has worked collaboratively with NHS and private sector partners providing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) services.
Magnetic resonance imaging is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body in both health and disease. Magnetic resonance imaging scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves to generate images of the organs in the body.
Cramlington magnetic resonance imaging centre is part of InHealth and is based within the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, Northumbria Way, Cramlington, which is part of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. The service is operated and managed independently from the trust.
The hospital opened in June 2015 and specialises in emergency care for sick and injured patients referred from the emergency care hospital. The static magnetic resonance imaging unit became operational on 15 June 2015.
The unit was purpose built as part of the Northumbria Healthcare Trust contract being one of three magnetic imaging centres static units in the trust. The fourth is a mobile service at Hexham.
Magnetic resonance imaging services were provided for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust patients only. The service at Cramlington differed from the base sites at North Tyneside and Wansbeck in that patients were not scheduled on an appointment-based system but were vetted usually by the radiolographer on duty and prioritised on an urgency and a case by case basis after review on the trust radiological information system. The flexibility enabled the unit to meet the needs of patients at any given time throughout the working day. The patients came from the hospital wards or from accident and emergency.
The North Tyneside and Wansbeck MRI base sites referred to were not part of this inspection but had been inspected previously.
The scanner in the unit was a wide bore scanner and was selected for its image quality and state of the art technology. The scanner was covered by seven-day service engineering support from the manufacturer to minimise downtime as much as possible.
We inspected the magnetic resonance imaging part of this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out an unannounced inspection on 11 April 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.
During the inspection we spoke with four staff, one patient and one relative. We reviewed 10 sets of patients notes, five consent forms, reviewed four staff files and one staff development evidence portfolio.
Services we rate
We rated the service as Good overall because:
All staff mandatory and safeguarding training was up to date.
All relevant magnetic resonance imaging equipment was labelled ‘MR safe’ in line with Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) recommendations.
The scanning room had appropriate warning signs displayed.
In the event of unexpected urgent clinical findings there was a clear process to follow.
There was a structured post graduate development programme.
All magnetic resonance imaging staff had a current staff appraisal.
There was positive patient feedback about the service.
Staff demonstrated an understanding of the patients and patient dignity was maintained.
Referrals were prioritised by clinical urgency.
The management team were described as approachable, open and honest.
The service had a clinical governance framework with links and representation on the local NHS trust meetings.
Risks were assessed, recorded and where applicable recorded on the risk register and escalated to senior managers.
Ann Ford
Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (North).
Updated 8 July 2019
We rated the service as Good overall because;
The scanning room had appropriate warning signs displayed.
In the event of unexpected urgent clinical findings there was a clear process to follow.
There was a structured post graduate development programme.
All the magnetic resonance imaging staff had a current staff appraisal.
Staff demonstrated an understanding of the patients and the dignity of patients was maintained.
Referrals were prioritised by clinical urgency.
The management team were described as approachable, open and honest.
The service had a clinical governance framework with links and representation on the local NHS trust meetings.
Risks were assessed, recorded and where applicable recorded on the risk register and escalated to senior managers.
There was a formal on-call system in place to deal with urgent scans.