Who is responsible for what we publish?
Pete, the editor. He reviews every page before it is published and whenever it changes. He is not a clinician, so this site does not give medical advice. It explains how private MRI works in England: prices, referral rules, centre types and report times. Where a medical point matters, we keep it general and point to the NHS, NICE guidance or your own clinician.
What are our rules for facts?
- Every figure has a date and a source. Prices show the date they were checked and link to the centre's own page. The NHS waiting figure names NHS England's diagnostics release and its month.
- We only use what we can show you. Prices come from centres' own published pages, not from phone calls, adverts or comparison sites.
- We delete rather than guess. If we cannot re-check a price, the row goes. If two pages from one centre disagree, we say so.
- No invented content. No made-up clinics, prices, quotes, testimonials, ratings, CQC details or case studies.
- NICE only where it applies. We mention NICE guidance only where it directly bears on whether a scan helps.
How do we write?
Plain British English. Short sentences. Calm. The question you typed is the heading, and the first paragraph answers it on its own. We state the limit before the benefit: a page about a scan says what it cannot tell you, and when you need urgent care instead, before it says what it can do. We do not use superlatives about centres, and we do not promise that a private scan will beat an NHS wait for you.
We do not publish symptom checkers, "best clinic" lists without a stated method and date, or insurance comparisons. We cover England only until we have checked the rules elsewhere.
How often do we update?
- Prices: re-checked against each centre's page on the first Monday of every month. Changed rows are updated and re-dated; rows we cannot verify are deleted.
- NHS waiting figure: replaced with the latest NHS England monthly diagnostics release each month.
- Pages: reviewed when a centre changes its referral rules, when guidance changes, or when search data shows that people are asking a different question from the one a page answers.
Every page shows its last-reviewed date near the top and in the footer.
How do we handle corrections?
Email hello@private-mri.co.uk with the page and the problem. We check it against the original source. If we were wrong, we correct the page and update its review date. If a price row cannot be verified, we delete it. Significant corrections are noted on the page.
How do we keep money separate from content?
Partner centres may pay us for introductions. That does not affect which prices we list, how we describe a centre, or the order of a table. The tables include centres that are not partners. See how we make money.
Do we use AI tools?
Yes, as tools. We use software, including AI writing tools, to help draft pages and to compare our tables against centres' pages. Every published page is reviewed by Pete, who is accountable for it. Tools do not decide what we say about prices, referral rules or safety.
How do images work on this site?
We do not use stock photographs of scanners or clinical staff, because they could suggest we run a clinic. If we add diagrams in future, they will be labelled.
How do we use structured data?
Pages carry Article and FAQPage structured data only, naming Pete as the author and linking to about. We do not mark ourselves up as a clinic or medical organisation, and we do not publish review markup.
How do we choose which centres to list?
We list a centre when it publishes an MRI price on its own website that we can read, date and link to. We group rows by centre type: dedicated scanning centres, hospital groups, online booking services and NHS trusts with a private tariff. We do not try to list every centre in England, and a missing centre is not a judgement on it; it usually means we could not find a published price.
Being a partner of ours does not get a centre a row, and not being a partner does not lose it one.
What counts as a source?
For prices, referral rules and report times: the centre's own web page, retrieved on the date shown. For NHS waiting times: NHS England's monthly diagnostics release (DM01), with its month and publication date. For clinical context: NICE guidance and NHS pages, linked directly. We do not use forums, reviews, press releases or comparison websites as sources for figures. The full list is on Sources.
What do we do when sources disagree?
Sometimes one centre shows different prices on two of its own pages. When that happens we show the figure from the more specific page, say on the page that the centre's pages disagree, and tell you to get a written quote. We do not average figures or pick the one that looks better.
What do "from" prices mean?
A from-price is the lowest price a centre advertises, usually for one body area without contrast, sometimes at off-peak times. We copy the centre's wording, such as off-peak, standard or fast track, so you can see what the price covers. Extras such as contrast, a second area or a consultant's fee are shown where the centre publishes them.
How do we write about NHS waits?
We quote the England-wide figure from NHS England's latest release and say which month it covers. We do not claim that a private scan will be faster than your local NHS wait, because waits vary by trust, by urgency and by the type of scan. Each trust's own figure is in NHS England's provider data.
How often are prices checked?
On the first Monday of every month, against each centre's own page.
Is the editor a doctor?
No. Pete is the editor and is not a clinician. Nothing on this site is medical advice.
How do I report an error?
Email hello@private-mri.co.uk with the page and the problem. We check it against the source and correct or delete.
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