BPAS - Portsmouth Central

Updated 10 February 2023

BPAS Portsmouth Central opened in 2013 and is a location under the provider British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS). The unit is located in a sexual health department of an NHS hospital. BPAS Portsmouth Central provides termination of pregnancy services as part of an integrated sexual health service contract with the local NHS trust. The service has provided medical terminations up to 10 weeks and 0 days gestation since opening in 2013 and surgical terminations up to 13 weeks and 6 days since 2021.

The service was registered to provide;

• Treatment of disease, disorder and injury
• Surgical procedures
• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Termination of pregnancies
• Family planning

In the 12 months prior to inspection, the service completed 1,147 terminations (of which 692 were early medical abortions and 455 were surgical), 50 of those terminations were for under 18’s, the service declared one serious incident and had zero never events.

We last inspected this service in June 2016. There were no requirement notices or enforcement actions that resulted from this inspection.

At the 2016 inspection, we did not rate the service, as at the time Care Quality Commission did not have the methodology to do so. This is the first inspection where the service will be rated.

Updated 10 February 2023

This was our first rating of this location. We rated it as good because:

• The service had enough staff to care for women and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect women from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to women, acted on them and kept good care records. The service managed incidents well and learned lessons from them.
• Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of women.
• Staff treated women with compassion and kindness and respected their privacy and dignity. They provided emotional support to women and their families.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of local women, took account of women’s individual needs, and made it easy for women to give feedback.
• Staff understood the service’s vision and values. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. The service engaged well with women and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However:

• Mandatory training completion rates did not always meet the benchmark standards.
• The service did not ensure women were fully informed of storage arrangements regarding disposal of remains in accordance with Human Tissue Authority guidelines.
• Women waited longer than five days between initial appointment and treatment which did not meet guidelines.

Updated 10 February 2023