The Gynaecology Ultrasound Centre

Updated 30 September 2021

The Gynaecology Ultrasound Centre is operated by The Gynaecology Ultrasound Centre Limited. Facilities include two clinical rooms for examinations and ultrasound scanning. There is a changing cubicle and a clinical storage area in each room. The Gynaecology Ultrasound Centre is a standalone service and provides a private clinical and diagnostic service for women with concerns about their gynaecological health, including early pregnancy. It does not provide a service to NHS patients. The centre offers transvaginal and transabdominal scanning as well as two and three-dimensional scans where appropriate. Most women are referred by their consultant or GP. It provides gynaecological diagnostic services to women over 18 years of age and family planning.

The service was last inspected on 6 February 2020 and a report we published in April 2020. Following the April 2020 inspection, the service was rated as good and was served one Requirement Notice for failing to comply with Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Regulation 17 (good governance).

Updated 30 September 2021

The Gynaecology Ultrasound Centre is operated by The Gynaecology Ultrasound Centre Limited. Facilities include two clinical rooms for examinations and ultrasound scanning. There is a changing cubicle and a clinical storage area in each room.

The Gynaecology Ultrasound Centre is a standalone service and provides a private clinical and diagnostic service for women with concerns about their gynaecological health, including early pregnancy. It does not provide a service to NHS patients. The centre offers transvaginal and transabdominal scanning as well as two and three-dimensional scans where appropriate. Most women are referred by their consultant or GP. It provides gynaecological diagnostic services to women over 18 years of age and family planning.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the unannounced part of the inspection on 6 February 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.

The main service provided by this hospital was diagnostic imaging.

Services we rate

Our rating of this service improved. We rated it as Good overall.

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. The service-controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. The service learnt lessons from incidents.
• Managers made sure staff were competent for their roles. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients. Consent processes were followed, and patients were advised on how to prepare for scans.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them to understand their scans. They provided emotional support to patients where necessary.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of their patient population and took account of individual needs. People could access the service when they needed it.

• Leaders were approachable and visible. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and responsibilities.

However:

• Leaders did not operate embedded governance processes throughout the service. Staff did not have formal opportunities to discuss and learn from the performance of the service.
• There was limited information around the service for patients, for example, there was no information on how to complain.
• The service did not use systems to manage performance effectively. There was no risk register or a formalised risk management framework. There were no plans to cope with unexpected events.
• There was no policy regarding transferring a patient out of the service should they become unwell during a procedure.
• There was no information online or in person on gynaecological health promotion.
• Although prophylactic antibiotics were prescribed, we found there were no audits/policies in place to ensure they were prescribed in line with best practice.

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 one requirement notice. Details are at the end of the report.

Dr Nigel Acheson

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (London and South)

Updated 23 April 2020

Diagnostic imaging was the only core service provided. We rated this service as good overall. We rated safe, caring and responsive as good and well-led as requires improvement. We do not rate effective in this core service.