Women in the UK are waiting too long for abortions, according to a major review into a leading provider.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) undertook a review of leadership at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), one of the UK’s main abortion clinics. The evaluation found there were delays in investigating serious incidents and that remains of some pregnancies were sometimes not stored properly in line with policy. There were also issues with record keeping, patient monitoring and safe care. It noted that “women did not always receive care in a timely way to meet their needs”.

BPAS delivers pregnancy terminations for the NHS to more than 100,000 women every year, with 49 clinics in England coming under the CQC’s remit.

The health watchdog said it found “significant concerns” in August 2021 “that safe care was not being provided”, with “ineffective safeguarding processes”, “incomplete risk assessments”, “observations [that] were not monitored or recorded” and “records [that] were not fully completed, clear or up to date”.

The CQC was concerned about “ineffective systems to safely prescribe, administer and store medicines” while recognising that staff did not report incidents and managers failed to consistently check that staff followed national and local guidance.

Women waiting too long for abortions, health watchdog says