Archived: Aster Women's Health

Updated 9 September 2022

The Aster Baby Scan Clinic is an independent pregnancy scan and women’s health clinic in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. They offer gender, viability, growth, reassurance, wellbeing, fertility, 3D and 4D baby scans, as well as pregnancy support scan packages for parents that have experienced a pregnancy loss or miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, pregnancy complications or are undergoing fertility treatment. All ultrasound scans performed at the clinic are in addition to those provided through the NHS as part of a pregnancy care pathway.

The service has recently added additional regulated activities to offer gynaecology scanning and consultation, treatment plans and advice, sexual health screening, painful and heavy period consultation, miscarriage consultation and early pregnancy consultation.

The service also provides antenatal and postnatal specialist services, including antenatal blood tests, pregnancy consultations, ante-natal classes, pre-pregnancy and postnatal counselling, and postnatal check-ups.

The recently added regulated activities were due to commence from August 2022.

At the time of our inspection, the clinic employed one registered manager who was also a Consultant Obstetrician and Specialist in Fetal Medicine, one sonographer, two administration staff, and a Consultant Gynaecologist. In addition, due to the expansion of the service, an additional sonographer and two midwives were also due to join the service. The clinic did not store or administer any medicines or controlled drugs.

The service was registered to carry out the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder and injury
• Maternity and midwifery services

The Aster Baby Clinic was registered in 2018 and had not been previously inspected.

Updated 9 September 2022

This was the first inspection for The Aster Baby Clinic Ltd. 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. 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 provided good care and treatment. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and 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.
• 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 could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long 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.

However:

• Ultrasound gel was decanted from large containers into smaller containers. This did not follow recent updates to national guidance and increased the risk of infection.
• The sharps container was not dated or named.
• Although the quality assurance of ultrasound equipment was completed in practice, this was not documented.
• The documentation with regards to patient consent was not clear.
• The service did not have an overall risk register at the time of our inspection.

Updated 9 September 2022

This is the first time we have rated this service. We rated it as good overall.

We rated this service as good because it was safe, caring, responsive and well led. We do not rate the effective domain in diagnostic and screening services.

Please refer to overall summary above.