Archived: Window to the Womb

Window to the Womb, is operated by Scantastik Limited under a franchise agreement with Windo w to the Womb (Franchise) Limited. They provide obstetric ultrasound services for pregnant women from 16 years of age. Ultrasound scans ar e offered from six weeks gestation to full term of the pregnancy.

The service provide s single specialty diagnostic imaging. We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology and carried out a short notice announced inspection on 28 August 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 .

The service opened in August 2015 and was registered for the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures. This was our first inspection since the service opened.

We rated this service as g ood overall.     

W e found the following areas of good practice:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.

• Staff provided good care and treatment, offered patients enough to eat and drink and supported them to maintain their comfort . Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. Key services were available seven days a week. Leaflets were available on how to lead healthier lives .

• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity at all times , took account of and met their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to patients, families and carers.

• The service planned care to meet the needs of local people as individuals and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for treatment.

• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

We found areas of outstanding practice:

• The service was not expected to follow up any referral to other health services. However, staff in the Bristol clinic proactively contacted patients who had been referred , to ensure they had received midwifery input and to support them to do so if not.

• The service was proactive in seeking to improve ways of working with local NHS services. Meetings had been held and were planned with maternity services across the region to improve how they communicated to improve care for patients.

• Safeguarding processes were embedded in the service and staff went to great lengths to ensure patients were kept safe . Any safeguarding risks were communicated to maternity services.

• The whole service demonstrated a caring attitude to patients. Any changes or developments to the service were centred around how it would affect patient care. All staff we observed demonstrated skill in their responses to patients. Patient experience was at the centre of their work and staff managed difficult situations sensitively as a natural part of their work .

We found some areas which could be improved:

• There was no provision for wheelchair users to access toilet facilities while they were at the clinic and no information for patients regarding this before they booked an appointment.

• Staff provided written information to support a healthy pregnancy but did not always reinforce the messages verbally after the scan.

• Following our inspection, we told the provider that it should make a few improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. Details are at the end of the report.

Nigel Acheson

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals ( South West )