The Baby Skan Studio

​The Baby Skan Studio is operated by Miss Kelly Ann Barritt who is also the registered provider. The service opened in 2007 and was registered for the regulated activity of diagnostic and screening procedures in September 2015. Facilities include a waiting room, scanning room, toilet and staff kitchen. The Baby Skan Studio provides obstetric ultrasound services for pregnant women from 18 years of age. Abdominal ultrasound scans are offered from seven weeks gestation to full term of pregnancy. This service is provided to self-funding women across Cornwall.

The service provided single specialty diagnostic imaging. We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. This was our first inspection since the service opened. We carried out a short notice announced inspection on 26 and 27 September 2019 with further patient engagement on 30 September and staff engagement on 1 October 2019.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Services we rate

This was the first time we rated this service. We rated it as Requires improvement overall.

• The service did not operate safe recruitment practices. References for staff had not been obtained.
• There were gaps in management and support arrangements for staff, such as appraisal and supervision. Appraisals were not conducted and there was no evidence of completion of an induction or probationary period.
• A limited level of health promotion was considered or shared with patients using the service. Instead patients would receive their health promotion via the NHS maternity pathways and care.
• The safeguarding lead had not received adult and children safeguarding training to level three and the provider had not received adult and children safeguarding training to level two.
• Patients were able to give feedback and raise concerns about care received but the complaints policy was not clear about how complaints would be managed.
• The service did not control infection risk well. Premises were not always visibly clean.
• The design, maintenance and use of facilities and premises kept people safe but clinical waste and equipment were not managed well.
• Staff telephoned the NHS hospital to make referrals and gave scan pictures to women to give to the hospital, but we saw no evidence of a standardised referral form or scan report to accompany referrals.
• There was no formal incident reporting system or process for sharing learning.

However, we also found the following areas of good practice:

• A high level of care was provided within the service. Staff cared for patients and their families with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. People were truly respected and valued as individuals.
• Staff provided emotional support to patients and those close to them to minimise their distress. Emotional and social needs were highly valued by staff and embedded in care and treatment.
• Staff involved patients and their families in decisions about their care and treatment. Their individual preferences and needs were reflected in the care delivered.
• The service was responsive to the needs of patients and their families and was tailored to pregnant women. Patients were able to access an appointment when they needed it.
• Staff worked well together to provide a caring service in a relaxed environment.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it must take some actions to comply with the regulations and that it should make other improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. We also issued the provider with four requirement notices Details are at the end of the report.

Nigel Acheson

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (South West)