The safety and leadership at a city abortion clinic has been called into question by health inspectors.
A comprehensive and unannounced inspection of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) Merseyside clinic on Parkfield Road has deemed services at the South Liverpool location require improvement. A visit by officials from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said while elements of care at the clinic were outstanding, women did not always receive treatment within agreed timeframes and targets.
In addition, the Aigburth service was not deemed to have a system of observation for patients under 18 to ensure early recognition and safe timely escalation of their treatment. Between its reporting period, BPAS Merseyside carried out 978 surgical terminations of pregnancy and 931 early medical abortions.
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It opened its doors to patients in 1970 and provides pregnancy testing, unplanned pregnancy counselling/consultation, miscarriage management, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, contraceptive advice, contraception supply and abortion aftercare. The CQC report said the service needed to create safer systems to observe patients under 18s.
The need for “effective and comprehensive handovers” was emphasised “at all stages of the woman’s care and treatment.” Throughout termination of pregnancy, inspectors found staff “treated women with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and took account of their individual needs” and were discreet and responsive when caring for patients.
However, the report said people could not always access the service when they needed it and received the right care promptly. Waiting times from referral to treatment and arrangements to admit, treat and discharge women were not consistently in line with national standards.
Concerns were also raised about clinical managers, who some staff described as “not always visible and approachable”. Responding to the report and its findings, a BPAS spokesperson said: “BPAS has worked hard throughout the pandemic to provide essential abortion care to women around the country through our award-winning Pills by Post service and in our clinics for those who want or require in-person care.
“The pressures of COVID-19 have meant that we – as many other services – struggled to maintain the high standards we pride ourselves on in some aspects of our clinic-based care during the pandemic. Following the issues raised by the CQC during their inspection in August 2021, we have worked incredibly hard to develop and deliver on a detailed action plan for the Merseyside clinic and the organisation as a whole.
“We were pleased that our actions have led to an improvement in the CQC’s rating of the service in the report published in July 2022, and that the care our staff provide for our clients has been recognised that with a rating of outstanding for this aspect of the service. We will continue to work with the CQC and the local CCG in the coming months to ensure that they are satisfied with our work and the evidence-based, woman-centred care that we are committed to providing.
“We will ensure that we rebuild from the pandemic with robust and resilient clinics, processes, and policies. And we can assure our clients that we are dedicated to constant improvement of our service and to providing safe, high quality, accessible abortion care to everyone who needs it.”
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