The Care Quality Commission
  • Hospital
  • Independent hospital

Window to the Womb Reading

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

1 Woodside Business Park, Whitley Wood Lane, Reading, RG2 8LW (0118) 327 2315

Provided and run by:
Divinity Limited

Important: This service was previously registered at a different address - see old profile

All Inspections

During an assessment of Diagnostic and screening services

Assessment was completed between 12 and 17 September 2024.

Window to the Womb Reading is managed by Divinity Limited and operates under a franchise agreement with Window to The Womb Limited. The service provides private diagnostic pregnancy ultrasound services and blood testing to women in the Berkshire area.

The service provides diagnostic imaging for children aged 16 to 18 years and adults over the age of 18 years. It is registered to provide the regulated activity of diagnostic and screening procedures.

The service offered the following scans:

  • Viability scans from 6 to 10+6 weeks gestation
  • Dating scans from 8 to 12+6 weeks gestation
  • Reassurance scans from 12 to 15+6 weeks gestation
  • Wellbeing scans from 16 to 40 weeks gestation
  • Wellbeing and gender scans from 16 to 22 weeks gestation
  • Growth and presentation scans from 26 to 42 weeks gestation
  • 4D baby scans from 24 to 34 weeks gestation
  • Gynaecological and Fertility scans

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. This was our first inspection of the new location, as the service had changed address. We carried out a short notice announced inspection to ensure the availability of staff and management and to confirm there would be appointments we could observe.

During an assessment of the hospital overall

We rated this service as good. We found a service where the manager was praised by all staff. Staff advised the manager was supportive and felt they could discuss issues and concerns openly. They supported an honest culture where staff felt valued and had opportunities for career development whilst being supported in their work/life balance. The service had effective systems and processes to ensure smooth pathways and transitions between providers. The manager ensured staff had sufficient competencies and training and the number of staff available kept women safe. The service provided women with positive outcomes and followed best practice to obtain women’s consent. Staff were kind and compassionate and ensured women and their families had numerous opportunities to ask questions. Women could be seen at times that suited them, including evenings and weekends, and there was no waiting list.

However, we found a breach of the legal regulations related to governance, Regulation 17. There was insufficient oversight of governance processes, which had the potential to cause harm. For example, translation processes did not follow best practice. Staff ‘unofficially’ translated to friends and family rather than via an official forum. This posed a safeguarding risk. Some policies did not follow best practice, for example, safeguarding policies did not provide guidance for referrals. Information was repeated between safeguarding children and adult policies that was not applicable. Complaint policies referenced sending concerns to the radiology union, which does not review complaints, there was no reference to the independent ombudsman. The service did not have a clinical sink in accordance with legislation ‘Health Building Note 00-09’. The risks associated with the site increased as the service provided invasive procedures. This was not risk assessed or audited to ensure the sink area was solely used for hand washing. Staff employment files were not fully compliant with recruitment requirements.