Background to this inspection
Updated
5 December 2018
Marie Stopes International (MSI) Essex Centre operated by the provider group Marie Stopes International UK. The service opened on the 1 October 1990 and primarily serves the communities of Essex. It also accepts referrals from outside this area.
The service first registered in October 1990 and has had a registered manager (RM) in post since that time. The current registered manager had been in post since 17 January 2018 however, at the time of the inspection they had taken an extended leave of absence. To ensure that there was a RM in place the operational manager was registered as the RM with CQC in August 2018. The matron for the south region with the RM from West London MSI provided clinical oversight until the new clinical team leader joined the centre in October 2018.
MSI Essex provides consultations, ultrasound scans, medical and surgical termination of pregnancy, and counselling and support for people who use the service. In addition, vasectomy, performed under local anaesthetic, long acting reversible contraception (LARC) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and screening are offered.
Updated
5 December 2018
Marie Stopes International (MSI) Essex Centre is operated by Marie Stopes International UK (MSI UK). MSI UK is a not for profit organization that was founded in 1976, to provide safe legal abortion services following the Abortion Act 1967. The service registered on the 1 October 1990. Facilities include four consulting rooms, one treatment room, diagnostic services, and 14 reclining chairs.
The Essex centre provides consultations, ultrasound scans, medical termination of pregnancy to nine weeks + three days, surgical termination of pregnancy to 23 weeks + six days and counselling and support for people who use the service. Surgical termination is carried out either under general anaesthetic, conscious sedation, by vacuum aspiration or dilatation and evacuation or no anaesthetic according to individual choice and needs. In addition, vasectomy (male sterilisation) under local anaesthetic, long acting reversible contraception (LARC) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and screening are offered.
We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out unannounced inspections on 11 and 20 September 2018.
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 our inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
At our previous inspection on 14 June 2017 we found breaches in regulations which we followed up as part of this inspection. The breaches were in respect of:
At this inspection we found the provider had not met all the requirements of this regulation.
We found breaches in respect of:
Our rating of this service is good overall.
We found good practice in relation to:
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Staff were helpful and caring and treated patients with dignity and respect.
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Equipment maintenance and service records were fully itemised, organised and maintained.
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There was a clear process in place for staff to report any incidents.
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The policies reviewed were up to date and in line with the latest guidance and staff were able to access these easily.
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Processes and procedures for daily infection prevention and control (IPC) and cleaning checks were maintained.
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Translation services were available for patients who did not have English as a first language.
However, we also found areas of practice that the service provider needs to improve:
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Surgical staff were unable to decontaminate their hands in the sluice area.
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Clinical waste pedal bins within the theatre environment were broken. These had been replaced on our return visit.
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In a three-month period, there were 17 days were the fridge checks were not recorded.
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The provider had a management of Fetal Tissue Policy in place however practice observed during the inspection did not comply with the policy. There was no local oversight on the storage and disposal of pregnancy tissue.
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Environmental concerns were highlighted as the outside bins were overfilled and the lids were unsecured. On our return visit, removal of domestic waste had been addressed.
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There were a large number of empty blue plastic containers by the emergency exit, which could impede access/ exit from the building. On our return visit these had been removed.
Following this inspection, we told the provider that it must take some actions to comply with the regulations and that it should make other improvements, Details are at the end of the report.
Amanda Stanford
Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals
Updated
5 December 2018
Marie Stopes International (MSI) Essex Centre is part of the provider Marie Stopes International UK (MSI UK). The main service provided is medical and surgical termination of pregnancy (TOP). The centre provides medical termination up to nine weeks plus three days and surgical termination of pregnancy up to 23 weeks plus six days. Surgical termination is carried out either under general anaesthetic, conscious sedation, by vacuum aspiration or dilatation and evacuation or no anaesthetic according to individual choice and needs. Counselling and support is provided for people who use the service. In addition, vasectomy (male sterilisation), performed under local anaesthetic, long acting reversible contraception (LARC) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and screening are offered.