The New Malden Diagnostic Centre is operated by HCA Healthcare UK. The centre was opened in 2010, and offers private outpatients consultations, diagnostic tests and treatment for all ages. The centre was established to serve the local community with diagnostic and screening facilities. The centre forms part of the wider Harley Street Clinic governance umbrella.

Patients are offered convenient access to a wide range of services ensuring timely diagnosis and management. The centre uses the latest diagnostic imaging technology, including MRI, x-ray, ultrasound and specialist cardiac screening. The centre also offers pathology and minor procedures, and most of these procedures were done on the same day as a day case.

We inspected the service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the inspection on 13 September 2018.

To get to the heart of patients’ experience of care and treatment, we ask the same five key 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.

Services we rate

We rated this service as good overall.

This was because;

• The centre was clean and tidy with infection control systems for the prevention and control of infection processes. There were no reported infections in the last 12 months.
• There were effective systems at the centre to ensure patient safety. All staff were aware of their roles and responsibilities in ensuring patients and their relatives were safe.
• Staff were positive about their working experience, and felt supported to be part of a team.
• Patients spoken with and feedback received about the service was positive. There was a maximum 24-hour turnaround for patients from their initial contact to having their scan done at the centre.
• Staff demonstrated kindness and an understanding of how to meet patients’ needs in order to ensure that their experience was positive.
• The leadership at the service saw continuous improvement as an integral part of the service development, and staff were accountable for delivering change.
• The service was part of the Harley Street Clinic Group (HCA UK), and had increased in size significantly over recent years. Staff were able to cope with change and expansion and still delivered a quality service.
• The service actively sought feedback from patients and discussed both compliments and concerns at its quarterly clinical governance meeting. Patients’ feedback and comments were used to inform service development.
• All staff we spoke with knew what the values and vision of the service were. Staff were passionate about patient safety and worked to ensure that patients received an excellent standard of care.

Dr Nigel Acheson

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (London South)

Two patients told us that staff had explained thoroughly the diagnostic test they had experienced. One patient said she “felt safe and had total confidence in what they did”.

Patients who use the service told us that their privacy and dignity was maintained. All consultations, tests and examinations were carried out in individual consulting, diagnostic or treatment rooms.

Staff told us they were supported by their manager and all received an annual appraisal. All staff undertook mandatory training and as part of that had completed their vulnerable adult and vulnerable children training.

We found evidence that the centre assessed and monitored the quality of services effectively.

One patient who used the service told us that it was “an excellent experience.” Another patient we spoke with said that staff were “very efficient and polite”.