We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 9 October 2017 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?
Our findings were:
Are services safe?
We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Are services effective?
We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Are services caring?
We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Are services responsive?
We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Are services well-led?
We found that this service was not providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations. The impact of our concerns, in terms of the safety of clinical care, is minor for patients using the service. Once the shortcomings have been put right the likelihood of them occurring in the future is low. We have told the provider to take action (see full details of this action in the Requirement Notices at the end of this report). We will be following up on our concerns to ensure they have been put right by the provider.
Background
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
Victoria - Vauxhall Bridge Road is a slimming clinic located in Victoria, London. The clinic consists of a reception area, a ground floor consulting room and a basement level consulting room. It is close to Victoria rail and tube station, and local bus stops. Parking in the local area is very limited. The clinic is wheelchair accessible.
The clinic is staffed by a receptionist, a patient care manager and a doctor. There are staff based at other locations that cover shifts at this clinic. If for any reason, a shift is not filled by one of the regular doctors, there are locum doctors who are familiar with the clinic that can be contacted. In addition, staff work closely with other staff based at the head office in Richmond. This clinic is one of five clinics that are run by the same provider organisation.
The patient care manager was the acting registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
The clinic provided slimming advice and prescribed medicines to support weight reduction. It was a private service. It was open for walk ins or booked appointments every day except Sundays for a minimum of four hours.
This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of the provision of advice or treatment by, or under the supervision of, a medical practitioner, including the prescribing of medicines for the purposes of weight reduction. At Victoria - Vauxhall bridge Road, the cosmetic procedure that was also provided is exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore we were only able to inspect the treatment for weight reduction but not the cosmetic service.
Patients completed CQC comment cards to tell us what they thought about the service. We received 13 completed cards and all were positive. We were told that the service was excellent, and that staff always made time to listen to people, were helpful and flexible.
Our key findings were:
- All patients received appropriate treatment breaks that were built in to their treatment regimens from the beginning.
- The clinic appropriately refused treatment to people with low weight, co-existing medical conditions or drug interactions.
- The clinic actively sought feedback from users of the service. Any negative feedback was discussed at team meetings where staff came up with ideas for improvement.
There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:
- Review the need for all doctors and senior staff to have safeguarding training (for both adults and children).
- Review the need to keep records to confirm that the blood pressure machine was regularly cleaned and calibrated.
- Review the current system of who can access medicines supplies in the clinic.
- Review the system of sharing medicines between all the doctors working in the clinic.
- Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available.