Trinity Medical Imaging is operated by Trinity Medical Imaging Ltd. It is an independent nuclear medicine service. The service was registered with the CQC in 2017 and provides nuclear medicine services to children, young people and adults.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the inspection unannounced on 5 November 2018.

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.

Services we rate

We rated it as Good overall.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients received care in a clean and suitably maintained environment. Staff were aware of and applied infection prevention and control guidelines.
• Staff had the right qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience to undertake their roles and responsibilities. They had access to training and were supported by service leaders. All the staff were up to date with their mandatory training and had received an appraisal in the last 12 months.
• Patients had timely access to appointments. There was some flexibility in appointment times to meet the needs of patients who were working or had other responsibilities.
• There were processes to ensure safety checks and maintenance of equipment was completed in line with manufacturers’ guidelines.
• We observed staff taking time to interact with people who used the service in a respectful and considerate manner.
• Risk assessments were undertaken through the relevant channels.
• Each procedure undertaken had a specific pathway, and these were displayed for staff to follow.
• Staff told us they felt well supported by their colleagues and leaders of the service.
• Records were stored to maintain patient confidentiality at all times. Imaging reports were legible and contained relevant information.
• The service sought the views of staff, patients and stakeholders to drive improvement within the service.
• Policies and procedures were reviewed yearly and there was clear oversight in relation to the management and development of policies and procedures.

Dr Nigel Acheson

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (London)