Infirmary broke abortion rules

Rochdale Infirmary (part of the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust) is one of fourteen NHS abortion clinics that have broken the rules by allowing doctors to pre-sign forms authorising a termination, the health service regulator in England says.

The  Care Quality Commission also found "irregularities" at some clinics.

Ministers asked for over 300 private and NHS clinics to be inspected over concerns doctors were signing forms before a woman had been seen.

All Trusts are now complying with the Abortion Act, the CQC says.

The Abortion Act 1967 requires a form (HSA1) certifying that the requirements for a termination have been met to be signed by two doctors before the procedure takes place.

But in January, the CQC identified evidence during an inspection of a private clinic that HSA1 forms were being pre-signed by one doctor.

This is in breach of the Abortion Act, and allows the second doctor to take a solo decision to allow a termination.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley then asked CQC to investigate whether this practice was widespread.

The resulting inspections, which took place in March, looked specifically for evidence of pre-signed HSA1 forms.

As a result of these unannounced inspections, the CQC has identified evidence of pre-signing at 14 locations, all of which were NHS Trusts.

Inspectors also found irregularities with how the forms were completed at a number of other clinics, but there was no evidence of pre-signing found at these locations and no further action was taken.

The CQC required the trusts which were found to be pre-signing HSA1 forms to stop the practice in order to comply with the Abortion Act.

The CQC said: "All have now done so, and steps including internal audits and staff training have been taken to ensure continued compliance."

Dr Sally Bradley, Medical Director at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust which runs Rochdale Infirmary, said: “As part of a national review of NHS Trusts by the Care Quality Commission in March, a pre-signed form was found being used at Rochdale Infirmary.

“Since the CQC’s inspection, we have changed the way that our Termination of Pregnancy clinics are run. We have also changed the way that our administrative processes work.

“Both the CQC and the Trust have carried out follow-up reviews. Following a re-inspection of our medical records by the CQC, they have confirmed that they have no concerns and that we are fully compliant with the Abortion Act across all our hospitals.”