Archived: The Slimming Clinic

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection February 2018 - Not rated)

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 The Slimming Clinic, Hounslow to rate the service for the provision of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services as part of our current inspection programme.

The Slimming Clinic, Hounslow provides weight loss services, including prescribed medicines, and dietary and lifestyle advice to support weight reduction under the supervision of a doctor.

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.

17 people provided feedback about the service via comment cards. The comments were all positive. Comments about the staff included being polite, helpful and encouraging. The comments about the clinic included providing an encouraging service, ease of access to appointments and being delivered in a clean and tidy environment.

Our key findings were:

•Prescribing and record keeping were in line with the parent company’s policies.

•The clinic was in a good state of repair, clean and tidy.

•Learning from other services within the parent company was shared and implemented.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

•Make arrangements to improve privacy in the consultation room during a consultation.

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

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care

We carried out a focussed inspection on 7 November 2018 to ask the service the following key question; Is the service well-led?

Our findings were:

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 previously inspected this service on the 20 February 2018 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding the well led aspect of the service. We checked this as part of this focussed inspection and found that this had been resolved.

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 Clinics – Hounslow 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.

Our key findings were:

• The provider had established effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

• The provider had appropriate training records to evidence that staff had the necessary skills and competence to carry out their roles.

• The provider provided evidence of regular appraisals for all staff working in the service.

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

• Continue to review the need for chaperoning at the service .

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP Chief Inspector of General Practice