MYM Coventry

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

We looked for evidence that women were treated with kindness, empathy and compassion. We assessed the levels of privacy and dignity afforded to women. We asked women to tell us about their experiences, if they were respected, if they understood that they and their experience of how they were treated and supported mattered. We also looked for evidence that every effort was made to take women’s wishes into account and respect their choices, to achieve the best possible outcomes for them.

This is the first assessment of this service. However, the service was previously inspected as a satellite clinic under a different registration, where we rated caring as good. During this assessment we rated caring as good.

We have not awarded this service a score for Caring.

Find out about when we will not publish a key question score and what we look at when we assess Caring.

The service always treated women with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Staff treated women with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and took account of their individual needs. Staff introduced themselves to women and said what their role was. Women we spoke to during and after our inspection were overwhelmingly positive about their experience and all provided examples of how staff treated them with kindness and compassion. All women told us they would recommend the service, and many of them had booked following a recommendation from someone they knew.

Staff were discreet and responsive when caring for women and their families. They reviewed booking information to ensure they had sensitive information such as previous miscarriage before they carried out the scan. They took their time to interact with women and those close to them in a respectful and considerate way. All women we spoke to felt their privacy and dignity was maintained. They told us staff always checked whether they were happy with information to be shared with family.

We saw staff give clear explanations to people attending for both pregnancy scans and for blood tests. Staff did this in a way that people could understand. Women told us staff explained what they were doing throughout the appointment.

Staff in the scanning room responded to women’s anxieties about their procedure and took steps to reduce the stress within the environment. Women were encouraged to have somebody familiar with them. There was space for 6 people in the scanning room. The sonographers provided lots of reassurance in a balanced way, ensuring women understood the importance of having their NHS scans.

In the scanning room women were covered as far as possible and not unduly exposed. Staff were respectful to the women. Women said staff treated them well and with kindness.

Staff followed policy to keep care and treatment confidential.

The service treated women as individuals and made sure their care, support and treatment met their needs and preferences. Staff took account of women’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Staff placed value on making each appointment an individualised experience according to the needs of the person and reasons for booking. For example, a discussion would take place with individuals about how they would like a gender to be revealed. Where 1 parent wanted to know and the other did not, we observed sonographers ensure their wishes were followed through.

The service gathered information from the booking form to plan ahead for reasonable adjustments or individual needs. Staff would contact people in advance of appointments if needed to discuss any individual needs.

Information could be provided to individuals in different formats, for example consent forms would be translated for people who did not read or write in English.

Feedback was gathered through online reviews and quick response codes. Concerns were responded to, but they were minimal. Feedback was mostly very positive. We observed women and their families wishes being followed. For example, sonographers checked how they wanted the results to be shared and made sure they did this in a way which met their needs. This was reinforced by women we spoke to following our inspection.

The service promoted women’s independence, so they knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

The service website clearly set out the different scans and blood tests available. Costs were clear and what was included within each type of appointment was outlined with additional detail about the importance of continuing with NHS routine scans and appointments.

People were supported throughout the process from initial booking and within the appointment to understand the scan process. Information was given verbally and on posters in the scan room, informing people of their choice to stop the scan at any time.

The staff listened to and understood women’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to women’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

The referrals policy outlined actions to be taken when an abnormality was seen. The policy also provided guidance for staff on how to communicate with sensitivity and empathy. Staff had received national bereavement pathway training to enable them to support a woman where there maybe a loss. However, staff were clear this was used to ensure they managed the situation sensitively and compassionately and not to diagnose.

Responding to the persons individual needs was placed at the forefront of care provision. Staff recognised the value in understanding the needs of family members and others attending with people. For example, staff understood difficult news might affect members of a family in different ways.

The layout of the service had been designed specifically to allow for appropriate response to people’s immediate needs. For example, the quiet room could be used if people received distressing news.

Staff gave women and those close to them help, emotional support and advice when they needed it. All women we spoke to fed back staff were empathic and offered emotional reassurance. They were warm in their approach and took things at their pace.

The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.

Staff had access to resource and facilities for safe working. This included being able to take breaks. Display screen equipment (DSE) assessments were carried out to ensure staff who were scanning and using computers for long periods had equipment required to maintain their health and well being long term.

Staff were able to provide feedback, raise concerns and suggest ways to improve the service or staff experiences and could expect a response. The management team were in the process of implementing a staff survey, but this had not started at the time of our inspection.

Staff had access to personalised support which recognised the diversity of a workforce with initiative-taking and reactive measures. Staff provided examples of adjustments made to their working patterns to improve work life balance or to respond to unexpected changes in their lives. Furthermore, staff told us leaders invested in equipment to support them to carry out their roles safely. For example, blue screens were provided for the scanning monitors to support staff who developed migraines from continuous use of the monitors. They were very complimentary of the leaders in supporting them.

Sonographers were provided with peer support and regular supervision. Staff considered this to be supportive and found it invaluable in developing their skills.