InHealth MRI - East Surrey Hospital

Updated 6 September 2021

InHealth MRI Department East Surrey Hospital is operated by InHealth Limited. It is a diagnostic and screening service in Redhill, Surrey. The service primarily serves the communities of Surrey. It also accepts patient referrals from outside this area. All patients are NHS referrals. The service does not see private patients due to a service level agreement with the aligned NHS trust. In the past twelve months the unit had carried out 21,625 MRI scans.

The service has a registered manager who has been in in post since 2019 and is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures

The service was registered in August 2019 and has not been inspected by the Care Quality Commission before.

The service sees patients on a day case basis and but have three bed bays for inpatients at East Surrey Hospital. Currently the only service provided is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This is a type of scan that uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the inside of the body. InHealth MRI Department East Surrey Hospital has two MRI scanners housed in a scanning suite with a changing areas and three bays for inpatients of East Surrey Hospital. There was a waiting area and a separate entrance for outpatients.

The unit had eight radiographers, a superintendent radiographer, an acting imaging services manager and administrative staff employed full time.

We carried out a short notice announced inspection on 14 July 2021 using our comprehensive inspection methodology.

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.

Updated 6 September 2021

We have not previously rated the service. We rated it as good because:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
• Staff provided good care to patients. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients and had access to good information. Services were available seven days a week.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to patients, families and carers.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of patients’ individual needs and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for a diagnostic procedure.
• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients.

However:

• Consent forms were not fully completed. Six out of 10 consent forms were not complete.
• There was no separate clinical meeting structure for clinical radiographers to enhance governance and support ongoing development of evidence-based practice at the location.
• Medicines held at the location did not have a document structure to support effective record keeping but there were adequate stocks of medicines which were all in date.
• Mandatory training for some members of staff was incomplete.

Updated 6 September 2021

We have not previously rated this service. We rated it as good.