Archived: Hello Baby

Updated 26 July 2016

We inspected this service as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2015, to look at the overall quality of the service.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Hello Baby on 31 March 2016 as a result of concerns being raised with the CQC about the service.

Our inspection team was led by a CQC Lead Inspector who was accompanied by a Specialist Advisor who had experience in Midwifery and antenatal care.

During our visit we:

• Spoke with the provider and a receptionist.

• Reviewed records and documents.

• Reviewed 50 comment cards where people shared their views and experiences of the service.

• Toured the premises.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 26 July 2016

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 31 March 2016 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was not providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was not providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was not providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Background

This comprehensive inspection was undertaken as a result of a number of concerns about the service being highlighted to CQC.

CQC last inspected the service on 5 December 2014 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding infection control and supporting workers. We checked these areas as part of this comprehensive inspection and found these had been resolved.

Hello Baby is an ultrasound scanning business which provides non-clinical baby scans in 2D and 3D/4D. Non-clinical scans are also referred to as souvenir or entertainment scans.

Hello Baby is located on a busy high street in an area of St Helens. The service is open on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings for scanning but there are also receptionists working each day. People can either book an appointment direct with the service or via the on-line booking system.

At the time of the inspection there were no qualified sonographers employed by the service.

The provider is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Our key findings were:

• People reported they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The scanning room were well organised and equipped.
• There were systems in place to check all equipment had been serviced regularly.
• Staff maintained the necessary skills and competence to support the needs of people
• Staff were not working within current guidelines.
• Staff were kind, caring, competent and put people at their ease.
• The provider was aware of, and complied with, the requirements of the Duty of Candour.

We identified regulations that were not being met and the provider must:

• Review and implement current guidelines regarding the frequency of scans and ensure those guidelines are adhered too.
• Review the content of the consent form to ensure it contains British Medical Ultrasound Society advice and guidance on entertainment scans.
• Implement appropriate risk assessments to ensure service users were not put at risk.
• Ensure that staff receive training in safeguarding and whistleblowing and develop local procedures to inform staff how to follow local reporting processes.

You can see full details of the regulations not being met at the end of this report.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Review the advertising of the service to ensure that they are not in breach of advertising standards and guidelines.
• Implement a system of audit for identifying where quality and/or safety may have been compromised.
• Review all policies and procedures to ensure they reflect the business of the service and comply with regulations.
• Use password protection on the scanning machine