The Care Quality Commission
  • Hospital
  • Independent hospital

Medica Operational HQ - Havelock

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

6th Floor, One Priory Square, Priory Street, Hastings, TN34 1EA 0333 311 1222

Provided and run by:
Medica Reporting Limited

Important: This service was previously registered at a different address - see old profile

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Medica Operational HQ – Havelock is operated by Medica Reporting Limited, providing teleradiology reporting services including, plain x-ray films, computerised tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Teleradiology is the transmission and display of radiological images, such as CT scans and X-Rays, in a location independent of the location the patient is imaged. It allows specialist doctors and reporting radiographers to provide an expert and timely report to allow clinicians to decide on the best treatment for their patients. Radiologists, rheumatologists and reporting radiographers will be referred to as contracted reporters throughout this report. The service employs consultant radiologists, reporting radiographers, and rheumatologists, all specialising in their relevant field. The service has no direct contact with patients and does not provide direct patient care. Contracted reporters report on both images of adults and children. Medica Operational HQ held contracts with NHS hospital trusts and independent healthcare providers providing remote reading and analysis of images. A team of staff are based at the registered location who provide operational support. We conducted an evidence-based assessment of the services with an offsite inspection on the 8th of February 2024. We reviewed elements of safe, effective, and well led key questions. The overall rating for this service was good. We rated safe, effective and well led as good because care and treatment was safe, and the service had effective governance arrangements.

21 June 2022

During a routine inspection

This is the first time we have inspected this location. We rated it as good because:

Contracted reporters had training in key skills, understood how to identify abuse, and managed safety well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them.

Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff and contracted reporters were competent. The service undertook audits and used the results to improve the service.

There were effective systems to ensure contracted reporters had appropriate equipment installed.

Referring organisations could access the service when they needed it. There were effective escalation processes for unexpected and significant findings. Staff and contracted reporters worked well together for the benefit of patients and had access to good information.

The leadership, governance and culture were used to drive and improve the delivery of the service. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work.

Staff were proud of the organisation as a place to work and spoke highly of the culture. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities.

The service engaged well with clients and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However:

The service was not meeting all its contractual turnaround times with clients due to the unprecedented demand for elective reporting services. The service did however agree clinically led turnaround times with individual hospitals and radiology departments to ensure reports were delivered back to referrers in an appropriate timeframe where possible.

Operational staff were not completing level one safeguarding training.