Archived: National Slimming & Cosmetic Clinics

Updated 21 February 2019

National Slimming and Cosmetic Clinic Newcastle is a private clinic which provides medical treatment for weight loss. 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.

The service has a 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 is open on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday from 9:30am until 1:15pm, and Wednesday from 3pm until 6:40pm. The premises comprise of a reception and waiting area, and consulting rooms situated on the first floor.

This inspection took place on 15 January 2019.

Our inspection team was led by a CQC pharmacist specialist and included a second pharmacist specialist.

Before visiting, we reviewed the action plan and audits which had been submitted to us by the provider. During the inspection, we interviewed the registered manager and receptionist,and reviewed documents and medical records.

Updated 21 February 2019

We carried out an unannounced focussed inspection on 15 January 2019 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective 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 well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations

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.

CQC inspected the service on 28 November and 15 December 2017, and again on 19 June 2018 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding medicines that were not prescribed in line with the provider’s policy with no information in the records to explain the decision to prescribe. Also clinical audits were not completed at the frequency detailed in the policy and had not picked up all of the issues. We checked these areas as part of this focussed inspection and found this had been resolved.

Our key findings were:

• We saw that improvements had been made in medical record keeping and prescribing practices
• A system was in place to ensure the effective monitoring and quality improvement of service being provided at the clinic.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice