Brighton Laser & Skin Clinic

Updated 17 July 2018

Brighton Laser and Skin Clinic is a private clinic providing minor surgical and aesthetic cosmetic dermatology treatments. The service is one of eight locations operating under the corporate provider trading of Laser and Skin Clinics and based in Brighton, Hove and Worthing. A second location, Brighton Laser Clinic, which is part of the same corporate provider operates from the same premises and carries out services concurrently. Governance is provided by the corporate provider and includes practice policies, protocols and governance. Procedures offered include the surgical removal of moles, skin tags, cysts and other non-cancerous skin growths which account for around 6% of the treatment episodes. The following aesthetic cosmetic treatments are also provided and are exempt by law from CQC regulation: laser hair removal; thread vein removal; tattoo removal; anti-wrinkle injections and fillers; laser skin treatment and microdermabrasion. Around 1% of the people receiving treatment are transgender patients referred by the NHS for laser hair removal.

This report concerns only the treatment of minor surgery in dermatology and not the aesthetic cosmetic services.

The provider address is:

Brighton Laser and Skin Clinic

56a Marine Parade

Brighton

East Sussex

BN2 1PN

The surgery is open from Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. There are evening clinics on Wednesdays and once a month on Thursdays from 5pm to 8pm as well as a monthly weekend clinic on Saturdays from 9am to 12pm.

Registered services are provided predominantly by a lead GP who has a specialist interest in dermatology and holds a diploma in dermatology and who is supported by a consultant dermatologist. The lead GP is also the practice manager. There is an additional GP with a specialist interest in dermatology, an aesthetic practitioner and two laser practitioners who deliver the aesthetic cosmetic services. There are two receptionists and an administrator.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Brighton Laser and Skin Clinic on 2 May 2018. Our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector who was accompanied by a GP specialist adviser. Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information we hold about the

service. Prior to the inspection we reviewed the information provided from pre-inspection information request.

During our visit we:

• Spoke with the provider and clinical and support staff.

• Looked at equipment and rooms used when providing health assessments.

• Reviewed records and documents.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?

• Is it effective?

• Is it caring?

• Is it responsive to people’s needs?

• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 17 July 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Brighton Laser & Skin Clinic on 02 May 2018. We found that the service was providing effective, caring, responsive and well-led services. However, we found that the service did not always provide safe services and a breach of regulation was identified. The full comprehensive report on the inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Brighton Laser & Skin Clinic on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Specifically, we said they must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

After the previous inspection on 02 May 2018, the provider wrote to us to say what they had done to meet legal requirements. We undertook this focused inspection on 10 July 2018 to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements.

Our key findings for this inspection were as follows:

• The provider had an automatic external defibrillator (AED) in place for use in medical emergencies. The provider had conducted a risk assessment to assess the need for oxygen for use in medical emergencies and found the risk of storing oxygen on the premises, alongside flammable laser equipment, outweighed the likely benefits.

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.

Brighton Laser and Skin Clinic is a private clinic providing minor surgery in dermatology. Procedures offered include the surgical removal of moles, skin tags, cysts and other non-cancerous skin growths. The service also provides the aesthetic cosmetic treatments for laser hair, thread vein and tattoo removal, anti-wrinkle injections and fillers, laser skin treatment and microdermabrasion.

This service is registered with Care Quality Commission (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. At Brighton Laser and Skin Clinic the aesthetic cosmetic treatments that are also provided are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, we were only able to inspect the treatment of minor surgery in dermatology but not the aesthetic cosmetic services.

Dr Russell Emerson and Dr Fiona Emerson are the registered managers.  A registered manager is a person who is registered with the CQC to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.