Numi Scan Ltd offers a non-diagnostic ultrasound baby bonding service for women aged 18 and above. It is registered to provide the regulated activity of diagnostic and screening procedures. The service allows women who wish to know the gender of their baby before their 20 week NHS scan or to enable them to bond with their baby, later in pregnancy, using 2D or 4D ultrasound. These are additional private ultrasound scans that are not part of any NHS screening programme. Early pregnancy reassurance scans are offered for worried mothers who would like to see if their foetus has a heartbeat. These types of scans are rarely available through the NHS unless the patient has experienced symptoms.
Numi Scan Ltd opened in 2017 and provides non-diagnostic pregnancy ultrasound services to self-funding women, from six to 40 weeks of pregnancy and are in addition to those provided through the NHS as part of a care pathway. The service primarily serves women living in Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and surrounding areas. It also accepts women from outside this area. The service also provides diagnostic vascular screening for patients over 45 years old, however the service had only undertaken five scans in the previous year.
We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out a short notice announced inspection on 7 November 2019. We gave staff two working days’ notice that we were coming to inspect, to ensure the availability of the registered manager.
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.
Services we rate
We have not previously inspected this service. At the inspection on 7 November 2019, we rated it as Requires improvement overall.
We found areas of practice that requires improvement:
- We were not assured that effective systems were in place to identify, reduce and eliminate risks. For example, there was no lone worker or chaperone policy in place.
- Some policies reflected out of date national guidelines and standards.
- Images were not independently peer reviewed and there was a there was limited commitment to continued professional development.
We found some areas of good practise:
- The service used well maintained equipment and premises.
- The service controlled infection risk well.
- Women could access services and appointments in a way and a time that suited them. The service used technology innovatively to ensure women had timely access to ultrasound scans.
- Staff were caring, compassionate, kind and engaged well with women and their families.
- Feedback was positive.
Following this inspection, we told the provider that it must take some actions to comply with the regulations and that it should make other improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. We also issued the provider with two requirement notices. Details are at the end of the report.
Heidi Smoult
Deputy Chief Inspector