Leicester PET-CT Centre

Leicester PET-CT Centre is operated by Alliance Medical Ltd. The service provider has a registered location within an acute hospital trust site.

The service provides diagnostic imaging services which includes positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET-CT) to the local community. We inspected diagnostic imaging services at this location. Positron emission tomography–computed tomography is a nuclear medicine technique which combines, in a single in a single gantry, a positron emission tomography scanner and an x-ray computed tomography scanner, to acquire sequential images from both devices in the same session, which are combined into a single superposed image. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans are used to produce detailed three-dimensional images of the inside of the body. The images can clearly show the part of the body being investigated, including any abnormal areas, and can highlight how well certain functions of the body are working. PET scans combined with CT scans produce more detailed images. PET scanners work by detecting the radiation given off by a substance injected into the patient’s  blood stream called a radiotracer as it collects in different parts of the body. In most PET scans a radiotracer called fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is used, which is like naturally occurring glucose (a type of sugar) the body treats it in a similar way. By analysing the areas where the radiotracer does and does not build up, it is possible to work out how well certain body functions are working and identify any abnormalities. For example, a concentration of FDG in the body's tissues can help identify cancerous cells because cancer cells use glucose at a much faster rate than normal cells.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out an unannounced inspection on Monday 4 March 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.

The only service provided at this location was diagnostic imaging.

Services we rate

We previously did not have the authority to rate this service.

We rated it as good overall.

We found the following areas of good practice:

• Staff had the right qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience to do their job.

• Staff understood the impact that a patient’s care or condition had on their wellbeing and on their relatives, both emotionally and socially.

• Staff communicated with patients to ensure that they understood their care and condition.

• Information about the needs of the local population was used to inform how services were planned and delivered.

• The service gathered patients’ views and experiences and used these to shape and improve the services and culture.

However, we found areas of practice that the service needed to improve:

• The radiographer we observed did not carry out a final four or five-way check immediately prior to injection of patients.

• We were not assured radiographers were always checking all six points of the Pause & Check ScoR IR(ME)R Referrers checklist. On the day of the inspection questions radiographers asked were not open ended enough so there was a risk of patients agreeing without having understood.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it should make improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. Details are at the end of the report.

Amanda Stanford

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (Central)