Archived: London Office

Updated 15 September 2022

London Office is operated by CardioScan (CSUK) providing cardiac diagnostics monitoring services and reports for adults and children, including 24 hour to 14-day ambulatory electrocardiogram (ECG), Holter monitoring (type of portable electrocardiogram that records electrical activity of the heart) and 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring for both independent and NHS patients on behalf of the referring clinicians and organisation. They provide cardiac equipment to the patient or referring organisation and process cardiac diagnostic tests taken at the hospitals, other health care settings and at patient’s homes and provide the results to the referrer.

The London Office’s referring organisations are a mix of NHS, Independent health services and independent referring clinicians.

The service has no direct physical contact with patients and does not provide direct patient care. The service has telephone contact with patients that choose to have their cardiac diagnostic test at home for the purpose of arranging the delivery and collection of the cardiac device.

At the time of the inspection there was a registered manager in place to oversee the service. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The service is registered to carry out the following regulated activities: Diagnostic and screening procedures.

The location had not been inspected since its registration with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 12 October 2020 and this was the first time the service had been inspected and rated. We inspected the service using the Diagnostic and screening service framework.

Updated 15 September 2022

This was the first inspection of London Office. We rated it as good because:

• The service had enough staff to provide a safe service. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to identify abuse, and managed safety well. Staff assessed risks, acted on them and kept good records. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
• Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure clinical staff were competent. There were escalation processes for unexpected and significant findings. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients and had access to good information.
• Staff treated patients with compassion, respect and kindness.
• Referring organisations and clinicians could access the service when they needed it. Referring clinicians and organisations receive their reports within the agreed time frame.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of patients and referring organisation and took account of patients’ individual needs and made it easy for people to give feedback.
• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients, staff and referring organisations and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However,

• Some of the governance systems and processes for peer reviewing of cardiac reports and escalation of significant findings standard operating procedure were relatively new, more time was needed to embed these new processes into practice.

Updated 15 September 2022

This is the first time we have rated this service. We rated it as good.

See the summary above for details