The Care Quality Commission
  • Hospital
  • Independent hospital

Guildford Diagnostic Imaging

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Egerton Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XU (01483) 303106

Provided and run by:
Alliance Medical Limited

All Inspections

19/10/2021

During a routine inspection

Our rating of this location stayed the same. 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, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. Services were available to support timely patient care.
  • 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 and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

24 January 2019

During a routine inspection

Guildford Diagnostic Imaging is operated by Alliance Medical. The unit is located behind the Royal Surrey County Hospital building on the ground floor. The unit can be accessed internally from the main hospital and by the unit’s own entrance. The unit has one Magnetic Resonance Imaging, three tesla (MRI 3T) scanner and one Positron Emission Tomography Computed tomography (PET-CT) scanner, which are in separate zones within the building.

The MRI has three changing cubicles in total with key lock doors one of which is a disabled changing cubicle, one disabled toilet and an MRI control area. The MRI Control area supports one Alliance Medical work station, one work station for the hosting NHS trust, two unit telephones and the internal trust phone which can be used for resuscitation and emergency calls. In this zone, there is a curtained resuscitation area for the unit. It contains the Alliance Medical grab bag, trust crash trolley and stretcher. This area also is used as the MRI cannulation area and there is a reclining cannulation chair and associated equipment.

PET-CT contains three uptake rooms (two with a bed and one with a reclining chair), one ‘hot’ disabled access toilet, hot laboratory and scanner control room. ‘Hot’ areas of the unit where patients have been dosed and are awaiting scanning. The PET-CT scan room is a large space with an additional fire exit to the rear of the room. The unit also has three offices containing five Alliance Medical work stations and one trust work station. A training room is also available with a large table, seating and an additional Alliance Medical work station. There is a radiologist reporting room with access to the Alliance Medial Radiology Information System (RIS) Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and Trust Clinical Research Information System (CRIS) PACS for both MRI and PET-CT reporting. Two MRI safe stretchers and a MRI safe wheelchair are in the unit.

We inspected the service on 24 January 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.

7 June 2013

During a routine inspection

People who used the service understood the care and treatment choices available to them. Comments made by person who had attended the service included, "I saw a kind lady who explained about undressing. From then on I saw a chap who told me how I needed to lie still and made sure I was comfortable, and explained about the noise." (referring to the scanner machine) Another person said, I had information about the procedure, very informative." When asked whether they were treated with dignity and respect, people replied with comments such as, "Absolutely" and "Very much so."

We saw effective referral systems in place and people told us they were referred to the service from their general practitioner and the hospital. We saw arrangements in place for communicating results to the referring person and people told us they expected to get the results of their investigation in due course.

People told us the environment was "Clean and well laid out" and "Accessible." We saw that the diagnostic procedures were carried out in a location that was designed and maintained to ensure peoples safety.

There were suitable arrangements in place to provide staff with the relevant skills and experience. A person told us they had, "No worries regarding the skills and experience of staff."

The service had an effective complaints process and took account of feedback in order to improve the experiences of people attending the location.

26 January 2012

During a routine inspection

Although there were a number of people in the waiting room we did not capture their views as they were waiting to go for an MRI or CT scan, so we did not want to cause them any additional anxiety. We did, however, speak with several people on the telephone following our visit. Each person was complimentary about the service they received and praised the efficiency and professionalism of all staff working at the service.