- Independent hospital
Ultrasound Direct Southwest Coast
Assessment report published 19 August 2026
Contents
Ratings - Diagnostic imaging
Our view of the service
We conducted a site visit assessment of this service on 31 March 2026.
Ultrasound Direct Southwest Coast is a subsidiary company of Ultrasound Direct Ltd, operated by Sonoview Ltd and provides private ultrasound scanning and blood testing services across 6 clinic locations in the south coast region. The service has 1 registered location in Southampton and 5 satellite clinics located in Chichester, Exeter, Plymouth, Poole and Portsmouth. The location in Southampton has 2 ultrasound scanning rooms and the satellite units each have 1 ultrasound scanning room.
The onsite visit was conducted at the registered location in Southampton. During the assessment, we visited the reception area, scanning rooms, administrative offices, and other areas used within the service. We spoke with 5 staff including the managers, 2 sonographers and 2 clinical assistants and 1 phlebotomist. A phlebotomist is a healthcare worker who is trained to take blood from patients. Staff we spoke with, worked across both the registered location and the satellite clinics. We also observed 3 scanning appointments and reviewed the policies, records and procedures.
We assessed 33 quality statements across safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led.
At our last assessment, we rated the service as good. At this assessment, we rated the service as requires improvement
The service had enough staff to keep people safe. Care and treatment were effective, and people were consistently treated with kindness, dignity and respect. Staff consistently maintained privacy and dignity and actively encouraged feedback.
However, the concerns identified around safeguarding governance, leadership culture, staff safety and clinical oversight were significant.
We found a breach of regulation relating to good governance, indicating improvements in governance systems are required.
An action plan will be requested upon publication of the final report.
People's experience of this service
During the assessment we spoke with patients who all provided positive feedback about the service and staff. We observed kind and compassionate interactions between staff and patients and saw correspondence from the service that was sensitive to patients’ needs.
We checked patient survey results and found that 100% of the feedback in the last 12 months was positive. Patients said the staff were “friendly” and “kind”.