- Independent hospital
Window To The Womb
Report from 4 August 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings - Diagnostic imaging
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 13 November 2025
We conducted a site visit assessment of the service on 13 November 2025. This assessment was conducted because of risk and aged rating. We assessed 33 quality statements across safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led.
Window to the Womb Alton, is operated by Anaservices Alton Ltd, as part of a national franchise of independently owned and operated baby scanning clinics. The leadership team for this location manage other services locally.
We refer to women in this report, but we recognise that some transgender men, non-binary people and people with variations in sex characteristics (VSC) or who are intersex may also use services and experience some of the same issues.
During our inspection, we visited the reception area, the scanning room, administrative areas and other rooms used within the business. We spoke with six members of staff including the CQC registered manager. We also observed three scanning appointments and reviewed the policies, records and procedures.
The service had enough staff to keep people safe and maintained good day to day safety standards. Care and treatment were effective, and people were treated with compassion and respect. Staff consistently maintained privacy and dignity and actively encouraged feedback.
However, we identified areas for improvement in governance arrangements.
Although policies and systems were available and staff demonstrated knowledge of safe practice; leaders did not ensure these systems were consistently implemented or monitored. Leaders did not take sufficient steps to identify and respond to people’s individual needs.
At our previous assessment of the service, we rated it Requires improvement, at this assessment we rated Good.
At our previous assessment of the service, we identified breaches of regulations relating to safe environments and governance. These breaches have now been fully addressed, and the necessary improvements have been implemented to ensure compliance.
At this assessment, while the previous issues have been rectified, we have identified new breaches of regulations relating to governance. These breaches are in different areas from those previously identified.
People's experience of this service
We spoke with women and families, who provided positive feedback about the service and staff. We observed kind interactions between staff and women. We saw correspondence from the service that was sensitive to peoples’ needs.
Women stated staff treated them with kindness, compassion, and respect. Women knew staff and leaders well, as they had repeat treatments.
We reviewed patient feedback for the 12 months prior to assessment and saw that the majority of this was positive.