Archived: National Slimming & Cosmetic Clinics

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 9 November 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 providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

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.

National Slimming and Cosmetic Clinics- Basildon is a private slimming clinic for adults. The service operates from a consulting room and separate reception area at Southgate House in Basildon. A toilet facility was available within the building. The clinic was open on Tuesday from 10 am to 1pm, Thursday from 2pm to 6pm and Saturday 9.30am to 12.30pm. There was a receptionist, a manager and two part-time doctors. Patients were able to book or walk-in and wait for appointment.

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 and Cosmetic Clinic-Basildon, 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.

There was a registered manager at the time of our inspection, however the provider had recently, started the process of changing 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. In future, this would be the clinic manager.

19 patients completed CQC comment cards and we spoke to three patients during the inspection. All of the comments were positive, about the friendly, caring, understanding and supportive staff and the cleanliness of the environment.

Our key findings were:

•  We found that feedback from patients was very positive about the caring, supportive, and understanding staff.
• The provider had comprehensive policies and procedures in place.
• There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:
•  Review the process to ensure all staff have completed safeguarding training in accordance with national guidance.
•  Review the need for Legionella’s disease risk assessment in the rest of the building, where the clinic is situated and patients have access.
• Review the recommended calibration requirements of the glucose testing machines used in the clinic.
•  Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available.