Staff treat clients with ‘compassion and kindness’ at Northampton abortion clinic rated ‘good’ by CQC

A Northampton abortion clinic has been rated ‘good’ in all areas by the Care Quality Commision (CQC) in their first ever inspection.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) Northampton central abortion clinic, in St Giles Terrace, has been rated good in safety, effectiveness, care, responsiveness to people’s needs and leadership.

The CQC report said: “Staff treated clients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to clients, families and carers.”

The inspector found that staff were well trained, managed safety and understood how to protect clients from abuse.

The CQC found that staff provided good quality care and treatment and provided clients with access to good information and support to make decisions.

People are able to access the service when they need it and they do not have to wait too long for treatment, says the CQC.

Staff told the inspector they felt respected, supported and valued. They were clear about their roles and accountabilities and are committed to improving their services continually.

To improve, the clinic needs to ensure their surgical treatment room is free from clutter and not used as an additional storage area. It also needs to ensure that it has appropriately carried out a risk assessment of size and suitability of their recovery area and recliner chairs.

The clinic should additionally ensure that written records always contain the required client identification details, equipment servicing details are always available and that emergency medication is where it needs to be.

Read the full CQC report here.