The contract, which runs for an initial period of two years, with an option to extend for a further 24 months, will see the company assess approximately 200 patients per annum. Services, including EEG’s, EMG’s and nerve conduction studies, will be delivered locally at the Countess of Chester Hospital, in outpatient clinic settings and directly on the wards, as and when required.
Debbie Bryce, service manager, acute medicine, at the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The benefits to patient care are a high quality consultant-led service and reporting system, and a quick turnaround of test results. For routine patients there will be a 14 day maximum turnaround between request for test and receipt of result, and this has been designed to help our Trust achieve the National 18 Week referral to treatment target. For inpatient tests the turnaround of results is strictly within three days.”