The Riverside Clinic is operated by Healthshare Diagnostics Ltd. The clinic had been registered with CQC since 2020. The clinic offered services to NHS and privately funded patients, the majority of which were adults. Children above the age of 12 were seen at the outpatient clinic before May 2022, from then onwards only young adults 16 years old and above were seen for diagnostic imaging procedures.
The Riverside Clinic has a diagnostic suite which provides magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), digital radiography (X-ray), dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), mobile imaging unit used primarily for fluoroscopic imaging (X-ray image intensifier/C-arm), and ultrasound. The service employed radiographers who were supported by a team of consultant radiologists. Ultrasound was carried out by registered sonographers and consultant radiologists.
The centre is registered with the Quality Standards in Imaging (QSI). QSI has been developed jointly by the Royal College of Radiologists and the Society and College of Radiographers and is administered by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). The diagnostic imaging department was operational from 8 am to 10 pm Monday to Saturday and 9 am to 6 pm on Sundays.
The clinic provides services for children and young people between the age of 16 and 18 years old. The service had provided outpatient services to children aged 12 and over until May 2022. However, they had stopped providing these services at the time of our inspection. Diagnostic imaging provided was magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for headaches and musculoskeletal issues. No complex scans, such as abdominal or gynaecological MRI’s were undertaken, and no contrast dye was administered to patients under the age of 18. Clinical and medical oncology services were not provided. Of the 22319 patients seen between May 2021 and May 2022 seven were diagnostic imaging and 34 were outpatients (less than 0.1%)
The endoscopy unit consists of two procedure rooms, eight recovery rooms, and a decontamination suite. The types of procedure undertaken in the past twelve months were colonoscopy (884), flexible sigmoidoscopy (123), gastroscopy (1626), gastroscopy and colonoscopy (28), endoscopic gastric balloon (38). The service provides care for adults from the local area and the majority of the work is carried out under contract from the NHS (97%).
The outpatient department comprises of seven consulting rooms for the purpose of clinical assessment, diagnostic, and surgical planning. The department is fully equipped and staffed from 8 am to 8 pm each weekday.
The Riverside Clinic has a dedicated laminar flow (UCV) theatre, anaesthetic room, and dedicated 4 bed recovery bays. The main theatre is supported by a dedicated prep area. There is also a surgical wared with eight ensuite bedrooms.
The Riverside Clinic is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the following regulated activities:
- Diagnostic and screening procedures
- Treatment of disease disorder or injury
- Surgical procedures
We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the inspection on 14 and 15 June 2022 and followed up with additional interviews on 21 June 2022.
This service had not previously been inspected.
The main service provided by this hospital was diagnostic imaging. Where our findings on diagnostic imaging for example, management arrangements also apply to other services, we do not repeat the information but cross-refer to the diagnostic imaging core service.