MRI Suite Modernisation & High‑Capacity Scanner Installation

As part of a wider modernisation of diagnostic services, a major London NHS Trust committed to replacing an ageing MRI suite with a new, higher-capacity scanner to improve throughput, image quality, and patient experience. The programme required a tightly sequenced installation within a live acute hospital, coordinating structural works, specialist shielding, complex MEP interfaces, and vendor installation while maintaining continuity of imaging services. Kognitive was appointed as PM QS to support the Trust from early business case, complex design through to post-contract delivery.​

Kognitive led the JCT development, detailed applications for payment, and phasing plans for the MRI suite upgrade, including enabling works, structural modifications, RF shielding, building services upgrades, and equipment integration. Drawing on our extensive experience in live operational environments, we benchmarked unit rates, validated vendor proposals, and stress-tested programme assumptions to ensure the scheme remained affordable and deliverable within the trust’s capital envelope. Our work included option appraisals for different construction and installation sequences, identifying solutions that minimised downtime of existing scanners and reduced the need for off-site patient diversion.​

Throughout delivery, we provided ongoing cost monitoring, change control support, ADORE risk register, Digital Twin reality capture progress reporting platform, and independent review of contractor variations.
By tracking key cost drivers and linking them to clinical and operational requirements, we helped the Trust make informed decisions on scope changes, resilience enhancements, and lifecycle investments. The result was a successfully commissioned MRI suite delivered within the approved budget, with improved reliability, increased scanning capacity, and a clearer evidence base for future imaging investments across the Trust’s estate.