A 4D Baby

Updated 5 February 2019

A 4D Baby is operated by Alison Margaret Hines. The service opened in 2005 to provide keepsake and reassurance baby scans to women. When the service opened it was a partnership organisation which changed to the sole provider in 2014. It is a private service in Martlesham Heath, Suffolk and primarily serves the communities of Suffolk with some service users from the surrounding counties of Norfolk and Essex.

The service provides:

• Early reassurance scans from 7 weeks
• 12 week baby scans
• 2D/4D sexing scans from 15 weeks to 23 weeks
• High definition sexing scans from 15 weeks to 23 weeks
• 4D baby scans from 26 weeks to 28 weeks

All scans included four black and white images with the exception of basic gender scans from 15 weeks that was 2D and had 2 thermal images. The service offered 4D scans with CD Rom/USB images and heartbeat recordings included from 15 weeks.

The service has had a registered manager in post since 2014 when the service was registered with the Care Quality Commission.

Updated 5 February 2019

A 4D Baby is operated by Alison Margaret Hines. The service carries out ultrasound baby scanning for keepsakes. Facilities include a scanning room, waiting area, and toilet facilities.

The service provides ultrasound baby imaging for pregnant women from the gestation of seven weeks. We inspected the single speciality service.

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 only service provided at this location was ultrasound baby scanning.

Services we rate

We rated it as Good overall. We found areas of good practice:

• Staff understood how to protect patients from abuse and the service worked well with other agencies to do so.
• The service controlled infection risk well and they had suitable premises and equipment and looked after them well.
• Staff assessed risks to service users, they kept clear records and asked for support when necessary. Staff kept records of service user’ appointments, referrals to NHS services and completed scan consent documents.
• The service generally had enough staff with the right qualifications, skills and experience to keep people safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care.

• The service provided care and treatment based on national guidance and evidence of its effectiveness. Managers monitored the effectiveness of care and treatment and used the findings to improve the service.

• Managers appraised staff’s work performance and held supervision meetings with them to provide support and monitor the effectiveness of the service.
• Staff of different kinds worked together as a team to benefit service users. Staff understood how and when to assess whether a patient had the capacity to make decisions about their care.
• Staff cared for patients with compassion. Feedback from patients confirmed that staff treated them well and with kindness. Staff involved patients and those close to them in decisions about their care and treatment and provided emotional support to patients to minimise their distress.

• The service planned and provided services in a way that met the needs of local people. The service took account of patients’ individual needs and people could access the service when they needed it.
• The service treated concerns and complaints seriously, investigated them and learned lessons from the results, and shared these with all staff.
• The registered manager generally had the right skills and abilities to run a service providing high-quality sustainable care. The registered manager of the service promoted a positive culture that supported and valued staff.
• The service had a vision for what it wanted to achieve and workable plans to turn it into action. Staff understood and supported the vision of the service.
• The service collected, analysed, managed and used information well and systematically improved service quality and safeguarded high standards of care. The service had systems to identify risks, plan to eliminate or reduce them.
• The service engaged well with patients, staff, the public and local organisations to plan and manage appropriate services, and collaborated with partner organisations effectively.

We found areas of practice that require improvement:

• There were inconsistencies with mandatory training requirements for sonography assistants. Record showed that one of the sonography assistants completed mandatory training through their NHS employment and the other sonography assistant did not work for the NHS and did not have a mandatory training programme to complete.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it that it must make improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve.

• The service should ensure that all staff complete mandatory training and reduce inconsistencies between staff in their mandatory training requirements.

Amanda Stanford

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (on behalf of the Chief Inspector of Hospitals)

Updated 5 February 2019

The service provided baby keepsake scanning services to women. We rated the A 4D Baby as good for safe, caring and responsive. We rated well-led as requires improvement as there was a lack of systems in place to ensure all staff had access to a mandatory training programme. We do not currently rate diagnostic imaging services for effective.