BPAS - Nottingham West

British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) Nottingham West is operated by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. BPAS is a not for profit, charitable organisation with 70 locations in England. BPAS Nottingham West main clinic is in Stapleford a town on the outskirts of Nottingham City. BPAS Nottingham West also has three satellite clinics; BPAS Newark, BPAS Mansfield and BPAS Nottingham City. The service provides the following: pregnancy testing, unplanned pregnancy counselling/consultation, medical and surgical abortion, abortion aftercare, miscarriage management, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, contraceptive advice and contraception supply. Surgical abortion is performed under local anaesthetic. The service sees women and children from the age of 12 years. The satellite clinics only provide early medical abortion.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 06 August 2019, along with a visit to the BPAS Newark satellite clinic on 09 August 2019.

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 main service provided by this BPAS Nottingham West was termination of pregnancy.

Services we rate

We rated this service as Good.

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them.

• Staff provided good care and treatment and access to light refreshments and gave patients pain relief when they needed it. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. Key services were available seven days a week.

• Staff treated patients 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 patients, families and carers.

• The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service easily however, the service was not meeting the Department of Healths standards for access to timely abortion services.

• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work.Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and staff were committed to improving services continually.

Name of signatory

Heidi Smoult Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (Central Region)