Archived: National Slimming Centres (Portsmouth)

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 19 January 2016 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 not providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services effective?

We found that this service was not 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 providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Background

National Slimming Centres (Portsmouth) provides weight loss treatment and services, including medication and dietary advice, to people in Portsmouth accessing the service. The clinic is based on the first floor of a shared building in a city centre location. The clinic is open for half a day on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and one Saturday in every four between 10.00 and 13.00.

The clinic is run by a doctor, who is supported by a receptionist and clinic manager. The clinic manager is also the 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.

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 National Slimming Centres (Portsmouth) the aesthetic cosmetic treatments that are also provided are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore we were only able to inspect the treatment for weight reduction but not the aesthetic cosmetic services.

We obtained feedback about the clinic from 21 completed Care Quality Commission comment cards. The observations made on the comment cards were all positive and reflected that patients found staff to be helpful, respectful and caring. The patients that we spoke to on the day of the inspection were also very satisfied with the service.

Our key findings were:

• Overall, this service was well-led, and found to have good governance arrangements and quality assurance processes in place
• Feedback from patients was consistently positive about the care they received
• However, the provider did not have clearly defined and embedded systems, procedures and processes to keep people protected and safeguarded from abuse
• The provider was also not always supplying medicines in a manner that was in accordance with recognised practice or its own policies
• Staff at the clinic had not received training in key areas such as basic life support and chaperoning

We identified regulations that were not being met and the provider must:

• Ensure that robust systems and processes are in place to prevent abuse of service users
• Ensure that medicines are supplied in accordance with the service’s own policies
• Ensure staff have the competence and skills to provide care or treatment safely, including training in basic life support

You can see full details of the regulations not being met at the end of this report.

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

• Risk assess the role of staff members as chaperones, and review whether satisfactory training is being provided for this role
• Ensure a robust system is in place for regular and appropriate inspection, calibration, maintenance and replacement of equipment
• Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available
• Review their ordering systems for controlled drugs in line with recent changes in legislation
• Assess how they will make their services accessible. They should review the interpretation services offered to clients who speak another language, and the reasonable adjustments made for disabled patients to ensure they are not disadvantaged compared with non-disabled people
• Review their policies and procedures to ensure they are up-to-date, reflect current practice and legislation, and encourage continuous improvement