Dr Linea Medical

Updated 6 December 2023

• The registered provider is L A Strachan Limited, Dr Linea is the Registered Manager for the service location at 1st Floor, 9 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4 1AG.
• The provider has four registered clinic locations we visited the Ipswich location at this inspection.

Dr Linea Aesthetics

1st Floor above A & L clinics

9 Lower brook street

Ipswich

Suffolk

IP4 1AG

The Lanes Clinic

7 St Johns Alley

Maddermarket

Norwich

NR2 1DR

Active Business Centre

St Andrews Castle

33 St Andrews south

Bury St Edmunds

Suffolk

IP33 3PH

Salt plus holistic spa

15-21 Rainsford Road

Chelmsford

Essex

CM1 2XL

• The provider first registered the Ipswich location with CQC in July 2021 and is registered to provide services to adults. The treatments offered include those that fall under registration, such as medical treatment with Botox injections for the treatment of hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) and masseter muscle relaxation to reduce teeth grinding. The other regulated medical treatment offered was a slimming medicine treatment and follow-up monitoring however, this medicine had been unavailable and was not expected to be available for some time. The other procedures and treatments provided by the service, do not fall under the scope of registration, and include for example, non-surgical facial aesthetics with dermal fillers, skin tightening, acne treatments, pigmentation and age spots treatments, thread veins treatment, facial hair removal, and reflexology.
• The Ipswich location is sited above a dental practice close to the centre of Ipswich. The service shares an entrance and free parking at this location.
• The service is accessed by booking a telephone call or appointment online via the service website.
• The service is available Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday between 9am - 5.30pm, Thursday between 9am -7.30pm, and Friday between 9am - 4.30pm to book appointments. Clinic days and treatments are Mondays and Thursdays.
• The service website is https://drlinea.co.uk/

How we inspected this service

Before the inspection, we asked the provider to send us some information, which was reviewed prior to the onsite inspection. We also reviewed information held by the CQC on our internal systems.

During the inspection we spoke with staff including the clinical Registered Manager. We made observations at the facility regarding service provision, reviewed documents, records, and information held by the service. We also reviewed feedback left by patients on Dr Linea’s website and online.

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

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 6 December 2023

This service is rated as Choose a rating Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Linea Medical 03 October 2023, as part of our inspection programme. Dr Linea Medical is registered under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Services in slimming clinics
• Treatment of disease, disorder, or injury.

This service provides a range of non-surgical facial aesthetics, including medical skin care treatments, anti-wrinkle injections, dermal filler services, Botox for medical and non-medical conditions, and slimming treatment, these are a mixture of regulated and non-regulated treatments. There are some exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of regulated activities and services, and these are set out in Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Therefore, we only inspected and reported on the services which are within the scope of registration with the CQC.

Dr Linea is the Registered Manager for the service. 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.

Our key findings were:

• The provider carried out risk assessments to keep staff and patients safe.
• The provider had systems to keep clinicians up to date with current clinical and evidence-based guidance.
• Staff treated patients with compassion, respect, and kindness, this was evidenced in the comments left by patients.
• We found reviews about the service online and during the onsite inspection, these showed that patients were consistently positive about the service, and described staff as professional, helpful, and caring.
• The service encouraged feedback from patients which was positive and included the timely access to the service.
• The service had policies, and procedures for assurance they were safe, effective, and well-led. For example, environmental checks, and oversight of infection prevention and control.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to monitor the recently produced cold chain policy and daily recordings.
• Identify and record events as significant incidents.
• Improve the monitoring of the cleaning procedures.
• Continue to display safety information prominently to support and inform patients and staff.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services