Clinical Quality Assurance

Cobalt is a leading medical charitable trust that provides diagnostic and imaging services to patients. The service has some of the most technologically advanced diagnostic imaging equipment, including Europe's first 3.0 Tesla Mobile Scanner, launched by Lord Darzi at UKRC in July 2010. We pride ourselves on working closely with the NHS, as well as offering an unbeatable, efficient and innovative service to patients.

To continue to streamline the patient's pathway and maintain the excellent standards of imaging and reporting, we support all our clinical processes with a thorough commitment to Quality - and a robust Quality Management System. You can read our Statement of Purpose by clicking here.

We were the first diagnostic service to achieve BS5750 accreditation for service quality.  We are now certified to ISO 9001:2008, are undergoing CQC registration and are the first centre to be registered to ISAS.

We constantly strive to improve the service we provide and learn from patient's comments. We would encourage all users of our services to complete a Patient Questionnaire or Referrer Survey.  If you have any complaints, comments or suggestions on how we can improve our service please do not hesitate to contact Peter Sharpe, Chief Executive on 01242 535902 or email peter.sharpe@cobalthealth.co.uk

ISO 9001:2008
ISO 9000 is a set of five quality assurance standards that have been adopted by 90 countries around the world.  The most comprehensive of the standards is ISO 9001.

Cobalt is pleased to be certified to ISO9001: 2008 and are internal/externally audited twice a year to maintain this certification.  Our certification number is 0056 through MQA, Marketing Quality Assurance.  Our external audit noted our service to patients and consultants to be exemplary.  This shows our commitment to quality of service; maintaining expected customer requirements and exceeding them and continually improving the quality of service we provide. Consistent maintainence of our registration  demonstrates our ability to uphold an effective quality management system that is assured to the proven standards.

Care Quality Commission (CQC)
The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England, their aim is to make sure better care is provided for everyone. Cobalt was CQC registered in October 2010. 

Imaging Services Accreditation Scheme (ISAS)
The ISAS standard was jointly developed by The College of Radiographers and The Royal College of Radiologists. It is specifically aimed at UK organisations providing diagnostic imaging services in both the NHS and private sector.

We are the first diagnostic imaging department to have met the rigourous standards of ISAS - a UKAS standard. Being registered to ISAS means that Cobalt demonstrates a safe patient focused service. In particular it looks at patient, clinical, facilities and safety criteria and ensures the organisational competence to deliver against key performance measures.  These international standards are assessed by trained clinical and lay assessors.  Learn more.