The Care Quality Commission
  • Hospital
  • Independent hospital

Archived: Early Life Ultrasound Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Lower Ground Floor, 1 Imperial Square, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 1QB (01242) 300810

Provided and run by:
Early Life Ultrasound Centre Ltd

All Inspections

01 August 2022

During a routine inspection

At our last inspection we rated the service good. At this inspection, the rating stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

  • The service had enough staff to care for women and keep them safe. 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 good care and treatment. 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.
  • Staff treated women with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to women, families and carers.
  • 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. People told us they could access the service when they needed it, although this was dependent on the availability of the sonographer and did not have to wait too long for their results.
  • Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. 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.

09 January 2020

During a routine inspection

Early Life Ultrasound Centre in Cheltenham, is operated by Early Life Ultrasound Centre Limited. Scans are provided for pregnant women from 16 years of age. The service provides a range of scans for pregnant women with scans taking place from seven weeks to full term. The service is provided to self-funding women across Cheltenham. These include, 3D/4D ultrasound imaging, early pregnancy/reassurance scans, endometrial lining scans and well-being scans.

The service also provides non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPTs) for pregnant women and caters for pregnant women who choose obstetric ultrasound services, in addition to routine antenatal ultrasound services or those who are undergoing fertility treatment abroad.

All women accessing the service are seen as private (self-funding) patients.

The service provides 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 8 January 2020.

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.

We rated it as Good overall.

We found the following areas of good practice:

  • Staff had the right qualifications and skills, received and completed mandatory training.
  • Staff understood how to protect people from abuse and report incidents.
  • The service had suitable premises and equipment.
  • The service assessed and responded well to patient risk.
  • The service followed national guidance, and staff followed consent legislation to make sure they were meeting the needs of the women who used the service.
  • Providing a positive experience for women was central to the service. Staff cared for women and those close to them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. Staff provided emotional support to women and those close to them to minimise their anxiety.
  • Staff involved women and those close to them in decisions about their care and treatment.
  • The service was responsive to the needs of women and their families and was tailored to pregnant women. People were able to access an appointment when they needed it.
  • There was a vision for what the service wanted to achieve, and a positive culture was promoted that supported and valued staff. The service also engaged well with women and their families.
  • The service had a system to identify risks and controls to reduce them, and cope with both the expected and unexpected.

However, we found the following areas required improvement

  • Improvements were needed to some areas to control the risk of infection.
  • The registered manager needed to familiarise themselves with the duty of candour regulation.
  • We were not assured that policies were regularly reviewed and updated.
  • There was a lack of documented evidence in appraisals to demonstrate discussions around performance or future development.
  • Governance processes needed to be strengthened to enable the service to systematically improve service quality and safeguard high standards of care.
  • The service did not adhere to Schedule 3 of the Health and Social Care Act to ensure safe recruitment.

However,

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.

Dr Nigel Acheson

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (South)

12 September 2013

During a routine inspection

We haven't been able to speak with people using the service because at the time of our inspection there were no people booked for appointments. We gathered evidence of people's experiences of the service by reviewing their feedback to the service. One person commented, "Thank you for such a lovely experience this evening. I would definitely recommend to others. The service was great and very personal".

People were given sufficient information to make a decision about whether to receive treatment. The risks and benefits of having an ultrasound scan were explained to them.

People received safe and effective treatment which took into account good practice guidance from expert bodies in ultrasound scanning. Effective systems were in place to identify risks to people and to help people to manage changes in their health and wellbeing.

Appropriate standards of cleanliness and hygiene were maintained in relation to the premises and equipment.

Effective recruitment and selection procedures were in place to ensure staff had the appropriate skills, knowledge and professional qualifications to carry out their work. People said, "The lady who is training was really nice and caring, and well supported by her colleague" and "You have wonderful staff".

People's feedback was encouraged to monitor the standard of service provided. A person commented, "I would definitely recommend Hello Baby for 4D scan! The staff are very friendly".