11 February 2019
During a routine inspection
Ashford and St Peters MRI (Ashford) is operated by Alliance Medical Limited who took over the service in November 2015. The company has a lease of building agreement with a co-located hospital until April 2029, providing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans. An MRI is a type of scan that uses magnets and radio waves to produce detailed images of the inside of the body. MRI services are provided to self-funded and NHS patients within the setting of a co-located hospital in Ashford, Middlesex. The service also had a contract in place to scan patients from other co-located hospitals and private services.
The Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospital MRI (Ashford) location provides MRI scans mainly to outpatient patients or patients who are low risk. The location did not see paediatric patients under the age of 12 years. Patients seen between the ages of 12 to 16 were routine musculoskeletal scans only and a parent or guardian would accompany them inside the scanner. Any patient seen who was under the age of 16 years were not booked for scans on the mobile scanner.
The Ashford location uses a 1.5 Tesla machine in the modular unit and a 0.9 Tesla machine in the mobile unit located near the modular unit. Both machines have a weight limit of 150kg.
The MRI unit operates between 8am to 8pm, seven days a week supported by experienced staff, working in accordance with staffing guidelines.
We last inspected this location in March 2013. Our inspection found the provider compliant with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.
We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the unannounced inspection on 11 February 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.