This week sees the roll-out of a programme of inspections by CQC of independent providers of stand-alone termination of pregnancy services, after having trialled and evaluated a new approach. We aim to have inspected all of these providers by the end of September this year.
These inspections are part of a wider programme to inspect providers of acute independent healthcare; we are well underway with our inspections of independent hospitals.
As with all services, our role in relation to termination of pregnancy services is to ensure that people receive safe, compassionate and high-quality care. Although we don't currently have the powers to rate these services, we will report on whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs and well-led. We will also highlight areas of good practice we find.
We are keen to hear from anyone who has experience of services, as the views of people who use services and their families provide important information for our inspectors. You can tell us about your experience of care by emailing us or by using the 'Share your experience' form linked to information about individual providers on our website.