One of the UK’s largest acute hospital trusts has implemented Q-Pulse to support Quality Management Systems (QMS) at its flagship cancer centre.

Part of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, the Kent Oncology Centre (KOC) is based at the Maidstone and Kent and Canterbury Hospitals. The KOC provides external beam radiotherapy, brachytherapy, nuclear medicine and chemotherapy treatment to those diagnosed with cancer and serves a population of approximately 1.8 million.

"For a large Quality System such as ours, good maintenance of document control and internal audits are essential parts of our Quality Management System, which is certified to ISO 9001:2008," explains Vicky Pemberton, the Centre’s Quality Manager.

"Quality Management has been an important part of the Centre’s day-to-day processes for the past seven years, as QMS are mandatory for Radiotherapy and Medical Physics as part of the National Cancer Standards.

"Policing and maintaining document control in such a large department can be difficult, and to have Q-Pulse implemented is seen as a major achievement and a positive move, with ease of access to documents, a “pyramid of permissions” structure, and standardised document control across the Centre."

Within the Trust, other departments have already adopted or are in the process of adopting Q-Pulse, including Pathology and Radiology, with Quality Management Systems also being established for Chemotherapy and related services.

By providing more than 1000 users across the Directorate with direct links to management system information, Q-Pulse will assist in fulfilling CPA and Trust Clinical Governance requirements, along with ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System requirements.

Vicky concludes: "The Kent Oncology Centre has found Q-Pulse to be a fully comprehensive, Quality Management-compliant tool, which is well-structured and easy to use. In addition, we believe Q-Pulse can be used and customised to suit any service within the NHS."