Written question asked by Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat) on Friday, 28 October 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 1 November 2005. It was answered by Liam Byrne (Labour) on Monday, 28 November 2005 on behalf of the Department of Health.

MRI/CT Scans

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many scans have been delivered to date under the Alliance Medical contract for mobile MRI scans; how many (a) rejected and (b) repeat scans there were; and what assessment she has made of the (i) timeliness of, (ii) quality of and (iii) customer satisfaction with scans provided under the contract.

Answer: Over 83,000 scans had been delivered via the Alliance Medical Limited (AML) mobile scanning units by the end of October 2005. Of these, less than 1.5 per cent. were repeat scans, which is in line with national health service practice and incorporates the figure for rejected scans as patients are automatically re-imaged by AML.AML is now exceeding its contracted reporting time of four working days, with 97 per cent. of scan reports returned within three days.Scan quality is independently audited every six months by the clinical guardian of the contract, Professor Adrian Dixon; NHS sponsors; and AML's head of clinical governance.The last audit, which compared a sample of scans provided by the NHS and the independent sector, carried out by the Royal College of Radiologists in conjunction with the Department of Health, was published in May 2005. The findings stated that there was ““little difference in the technical quality of magnetic resonance examinations between the two services””.In addition, scan quality is monitored consistently throughout the contract as an integral part of the clinical governance framework. Any discrepancies or concerns are audited on a case by case basis by the clinical guardian of the contract.In October, 90 per cent. of patients rated the service as excellent or good.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 24200; 440 c276W;440 c276W
Session: 2005-06
Subjects: Contracts Standards Screening Magnetic resonance imagers Alliance Medical
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk