The Care Quality Commission
  • Hospital
  • Independent hospital

Taunton Road Medical Centre

Overall: Outstanding read more about inspection ratings

12-14 Taunton Road, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 3LS 0333 009 6286

Provided and run by:
Somerset Early Scans Limited

Important: The provider of this service changed - see old profile

All Inspections

6 July 2023

During a monthly review of our data

We carried out a review of the data available to us about Taunton Road Medical Centre on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.

This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.

If you have concerns about Taunton Road Medical Centre, you can give feedback on this service.

07 April 2022

During a routine inspection

At our previous inspection of the service on 25 July 2019 we rated it Good overall.

At this inspection, we rated it as outstanding because:

  • People were protected by a strong safety system with a focus on openness, transparency, and learning when things go wrong. The service had enough highly qualified staff to care for women and keep them safe. The registered manager was a GP with previous experience managing an NHS recurrent miscarriage service. They brought this breadth of experience to leadership of the service. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect women from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to women, 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 excellent care and treatment. Managers made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of women, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. The service had been nominated for a range of awards. Recently, it had won the ‘Ultrasound Clinic of the Year Award 2022’ and were runners up in the Somerset Business Awards 2021 for ‘Service Excellence’.
  • People were truly respected and valued as individuals and were partners in their care, practically and emotionally by an exceptional service. Staff treated women with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. There were high levels of emotional support available to women and their companions. We saw extensive evidence of positive feedback from women who had used the service. This included from women who had received difficult news, and those who had experienced pregnancy loss.
  • Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual people and were delivered in a way that ensured flexibility and choice. The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of women’s individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. Women told us they could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for their results. Women were supported by chaperones, to ensure women felt comfortable and received optimum emotional support. All staff received communication training to offer emotional support.
  • The leadership, governance and culture were used to drive and improve high-quality person-centred care. The registered manager recognised the importance of and demonstrated commitment to best practice performance. Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. The service used a systematic approach to continually improve the quality of its services and safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which excellence in this field would flourish. There were effective structures, processes and systems of accountability to support the delivery of the good quality and sustainable services.
  • 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 women receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with women and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually. Leaders strived to deliver and motivated staff to succeed. Personal and professional staff development was positively encouraged and there was a deeply embedded system of leadership development and succession planning.
  • At the last inspection evidence of satisfactory checks were not always obtained before staff started work. At this inspection, we found these had both been addressed.

25 July 2019

During a routine inspection

Taunton Road Medical Centre in Bridgwater, is operated by Somerset Early Scans Limited. They are based on the first floor in the GP surgery of the same name. This service provides obstetric ultrasound scanning for pregnant women from 18 years of age, scanning from six weeks of pregnancy to full term. They also provide non-invasive pre-natal test and women’s health scans. The service is provided to self-funding women across Somerset.

The service provided the single specialty core service, diagnostic imaging. We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out a short notice announced inspection on 25 July 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.

This was our first inspection of the service since the service opened in September 2014 and re-registered in 2016, this was due to change in their legal identity. We rated it as Good overall.

We found the following areas of good practice:

  • A safe service was provided. Staff had the experience, qualifications and skills, and had completed mandatory training. They understood how to protect people from abuse and report incidents.

  • The service had a suitable environment and equipment available. Staff knew how to reduce the risk of cross infection.

  • Records of women’s care and treatment were completed, and a clear referral pathway was available to refer on to other services if a scan identified a concern or anomaly.

  • An effective service was delivered based on national guidance and an audit programme had been developed to monitor the outcomes for women. Staff followed mental capacity and consent legislation to make sure they were meeting the needs of the women who used the service.

  • Staff received induction based on their needs and those of the service. This was to help make sure they were competent in their role and included checks of relevant registration with their professional bodies. All staff had a wealth of knowledge as they worked in similar fields in their other roles in the NHS.

  • Staff worked with other healthcare providers when needed.

  • A high level of care and support was provided within the service. Staff cared for women and their family/friends with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

  • Staff explained in detail and in a language women and those close to them could understand about the scan and outcomes. Women and those close to them had time to ask questions and look at their report and were involved in any decision making required.

  • Staff provided emotional support to women and their family/friends to help minimise their distress following upsetting news. They followed up with the women post scan to continue to offer emotional support and signpost them to other organisations that could also offer support and guidance.

  • The service was responsive to the needs of women and their families/friends. Women were able to access an appointment when they needed it and information was provided online about the services offered.

  • Concerns and complaints were investigated, and the outcome fed back to those who had raised them. Lessons were learned and shared with all staff.

  • The service was well-led with strong leadership and a positive culture was promoted and present among staff. The service engaged with women and their families/friends, and staff, to help plan and improve service provision.

  • The provider monitored and reviewed service quality to safeguarded high standards of care. There were systems to identify risks and plans to eliminate or reduce them.

However, some areas needed further improvement:

  • Evidence of Disclosure and Barring Service checks (DBS) were not always in place before staff started work.

  • References for new staff did not always contain information about their conduct from senior staff from their last place of work .

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

Dr Nigel Acheson

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals, London and the South