West Middlesex MRI is operated by Alliance Medical Limited (AML). The service has one Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner and a Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) scanner. The service also has access to a mobile MRI scanning unit used to meet higher patient demands. An MRI uses strong magnetic fields, gradients and radio waves to generate images of the organs in the body. DEXA scanners measure bone mineral density.

The service solely provides diagnostic imaging, which we inspected.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 5 March 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.

This was the first time we rated this service. We rated it as Good overall.

We found good practice:

• High levels of mandatory training compliance and good knowledge of safeguarding vulnerable adults and children.

• The service provided care and treatment based on national guidance and evidence of its effectiveness. Managers checked to make sure staff followed guidance.

• Staff demonstrated a kind and caring approach to their patients, which was noted in the friends and family questionnaire.

• Tours of the unit were available for anxious patients prior to their appointments. Patients suffering with claustrophobia were invited to visit the unit prior to their scans.

• The service had a supportive, competent and experienced manager.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it should make other improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve.

• The provider should ensure competencies are formally documented and well maintained.

• The provider should ensure that corporate AML values are known and understood.

Professor Edward Baker

Chief Inspector of Hospitals

During our visit we spoke with one person who uses the service and four staff. We also looked at feedback the service had received from people who had completed a survey about their experiences.

The feedback from people who use the service was positive. The person we spoke with during our visit was very complimentary and said the staff were kind and explained what was going to happen during their appointment. They told us they had attended the centre previously and had always been treated with respect. They showed us the information they were given prior to their appointment, and told us that the staff accommodated their need to delay the appointment. The feedback the service had received from people via the surveys was also positive. Any areas where people were not happy had been identified and changes made to improve people’s experience of the service.

There were a number of systems in place to monitor the cleanliness and hygiene of the service to ensure that and risks of infection were controlled and minimised.

Staff were appropriately supported in their work and undertook relevant training and to enable them to meet people’s needs.

The feedback we received from people who had used the service was positive. They told us that they were given all the information they needed about their scan before the day of their appointment. Almost all the people we spoke with said they had been seen on time and everybody said they had been given the opportunity to ask any questions they had about the procedure. One person told us, “I didn’t have to wait long. The staff explained what would happen and checked that I was comfortable. They asked if I wanted music as the machine is loud, which they warned me about”.

People also told us that the staff had been courteous during their appointment and treated them with respect. One person said, “The staff were good – very polite and helpful”. Several people said that staff had helped them to cope with the anxieties they had had about the process beforehand. One person told us, “They were very calming. I wasn’t nervous at all after they’d explained what was going to happen”.