Our Promise

All ultrasound examinations are performed by Pam Kapur, who is qualified and experienced in this field. She is also a member of the Society of Radiographers & Health & Care Professional Council.

PAMS Pregnancy Ultrasound Centre will provide a sonographer led service. Patients will be scanned at the requests of GPs, midwives and via a self-referral pathway on a high specification ultrasound machine.

Philosophy

We aim to treat all of our patients with courtesy and kindness, and with respect for their culture, religion and individual needs. We also treat members of our team with the same courtesy, respect and kindness in order to maintain a working environment that provides the emotional satisfaction and security which comes from providing high quality clinical care.

We aim to ensure that all patients have a good experience when they visit us. Whatever their emotional state in advance of their visit. Therefore, all staff employed are passionate about their work, are empathetic, and have good communication skills.

Key features

It is a flexible and responsive service with scan times to suit patient's convenience. This includes evenings and weekends. The pathway is simple and streamlined. Patients can make appointments over the phone or via the online booking system at any time that suits them. The scans are performed in a safe, comfortable and discrete environment. This service allows patients to be seen sooner than through a hospital referral.

The services are person-centred, with patients being able to self-refer and book appointments at times that are convenient to them. There are several options for scans offered by PAMS Pregnancy Ultrasound Centre, and patients can choose which scan they would like. All appointments begin with a consultation with the sonographer to discuss the scan, and any adjustments to suit the patient's preferences and needs can be made immediately.

Prior to all scans, patients are provided with written information containing the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed procedure. Patients are then asked to sign a consent form if they agree.

Advantages to patients

• There is no waiting for a referral to be sent to a hospital as patients can self refer.

• There is no uncertainty over whether a referral has been received and acted upon, because patients are contacted by the receptionist once a request for the service has been made.
• There is less anxiety involved as appointments are offered on request.
• There is ample free parking for patients, and the premises are on good bus routes.
• Patients can be signposted immediately to other services which may be required e.g. GP, midwife, early pregnancy unit, consultant.

Limitations

There is no treatment provided in this pathway. Scans are performed for personal reasons, including reassurance and no medical decisions are made.

There are no senior doctors on site if problems arise, but there are appropriate signposting mechanisms in place to ensure medical attention can be sought if necessary.

Clinical governance

Important clinical decisions are made on ultrasound reports. Therefore we follow evidence based practice and guidelines to maintain high quality standards. These include guidelines produced by the Joint Committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Radiologists. Individuals are accountable for maintaining knowledge and good practice.

The sonographer is accountable and responsible for the quality of their own reports and maintaining CPD folder. This is to demonstrate they are up to date with their professional knowledge within the practice and within their other place of ultrasound work. Regular participation in teaching doctors how to scan and training other sonographers allows for practice to be developed.

A random selection of anonymised images of examinations will be regularly reviewed with peers in order to ensure consistency of interpretation.

Images from scans that are reported will be documented and saved to a secure password protected machine. Ultrasound images are rarely required post-test as it is a dynamic examination, producing a clinical report which will be filed in patient's notes on paper as required. However, should the images be needed, they can be transferred from hard-drive to a secure disc and sent to the hospital. This is comparable to patients having scans in the private sector and other hospitals. Continual evaluation of the services is undertaken by regular discussion with other staff members and reviewing patient feedback.

Consumer representation

Patients are encouraged to put forward any views they feel will improve the service. These suggestions will be implemented where appropriate. There are feedback books available in the waiting areas for patient responses about their experiences. Social media (Facebook and Twitter) is used. This allows patients to provide comments, suggestions, complaints and compliments for the service to review. All chaperones are required to encourage patients to use this facility in order to provide feedback.

The service also has a complaints procedure. As per the business policy, all complaints will be responded to within 5 working days, and be recorded for future learning.