Archived: Slimmingmedics Reading

Updated 25 April 2018

We carried out this inspection on 06 March 2018. The inspection was led and supported by two members of the CQC medicines team.

Before visiting, we looked at a range of information that we hold about the clinic. We reviewed the last inspection report from December 2013 and information submitted by the service in response to our provider information request. During our visit we saw video testimony from patients who used the service, interviewed staff and reviewed of 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 25 April 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 06 March 2018 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 not 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.

Slimmingmedics (Reading) provides advice on weight loss and prescribed medicines to support weight reduction. The clinic consists of a reception and two consulting rooms; and is located on the first floor of a commercial building in the town centre. Staff include a manager, three part-time doctors and one receptionist. The clinic is open three part days a week

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 Slimmingmedics (Reading) 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.

The clinic manager is 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.

Patients completed CQC comment cards to tell us what they thought about the service. We obtained feedback about the clinic from 21 completed comment cards. The observations made were all positive and reflected that patients found staff to be friendly, helpful and efficient. They also said that the environment was safe, clean and hygienic. Patients said they felt supported to lose weight and were given lots of advice and support as well as prescribed medicines.

Our key findings were:

• We found feedback from patients was always positive about the care they received, the helpfulness of staff and the cleanliness of the premises.
• There were no effective systems and processes in place to prevent abuse of service users.
• The provider did not have systems and processes in place to monitor and improve the quality of services being provided. This included incident reporting, emergency risk assessments, patient safety alerts and communication with the patient’s own GP.
• Reception staff did not have appropriate recruitment checks and were not given suitable support, training, professional development and supervision as is necessary to enable them to carry out the duties they are employed to perform.
• Patients’ records were not stored securely.

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

• Ensure patients are protected from abuse and improper treatment.
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

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

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

• Review the need for chaperoning at the service and staff training requirements if necessary
• Review the process for disposing of medicines so that it complies with the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and its associated regulations
• Review the system in place for regular calibration, maintenance and replacement of equipment
• Review the process for incident reporting and acting upon patient safety alerts
• Review the recruitment, training and appraisal requirements for all staff
• Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available
• Review the arrangements necessary to meet the needs of patients with a disability, impairment or sensory loss and those needing translation.