Harley Street Dermatology Clinic

Updated 10 May 2022

Harley Street Dermatology Clinic is a private medical service provided by Dr Suchitra Badvey (the provider). It operates from rented premises at 10 Harley Street, London W1G 9PF.

The provider is registered by the CQC to deliver healthcare services relating to the clinical diagnosis and treatment of skin conditions and diseases. The registration relates to the regulated activities Diagnostic and screening procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury. Not all of the services provided fall within scope of the CQC registration. Cosmetic treatments provided by the service are exempt from regulation, being included in Schedule 2 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Accordingly, we did not inspect and report on those aspects of the service.

The provider is a sole practitioner, registered by the General Medical Council (GMC), and does not employ any administrative staff. The service operates mostly on Saturdays and Sundays, between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm. Consultations are by appointment only and may be conducted face-to-face or remotely, either by telephone or video calls. The service is provided to adults and children, although in practice children under 16 years of age are rarely seen.

Treatment provided that are relevant to the CQC registration includes minor surgery, such as curettage (scraping), cautery (burning) or cryocautery (freezing) of warts, verrucae or other skin lesions, which are carried out under a local anaesthetic.

Details of the service provided can be found on the website: - www.harleystdermatology.com

How we inspected this service

Before the inspection we gathered and reviewed information from the provider. We also reviewed information held by the CQC on our internal systems. We carried out a site visit and spoke with the provider.

We reviewed the provider’s governance policies and looked at five sets of healthcare records of patients using the service.

Due to the current COVID pandemic we were unable to obtain feedback from patients using our normal process of asking the provider to place comment cards at the service location. No patients had consultations booked on the day of our inspection visit. However, we reviewed the feedback submitted by patients directly to the provider and on two verified review websites, regarding their experience of the service.

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 10 May 2022

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of the Harley Street Dermatology Clinic (the service) on 27 April 2022, as part of our inspection programme. The service had been inspected previously in January 2013, before the CQC introduced ratings for independent healthcare providers.

This service is rated as 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

The service, which includes clinical diagnoses and treatment of skin conditions and diseases, is provided by Dr Suchitra Badvey (the provider) who is registered by the CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. The registration is in relation to the regulated activities Diagnostic and screening procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury. Not all of the services provided fall within scope of the CQC registration. The exceptions from regulation by the CQC which relate to particular types of regulated activities and services are set out in Schedule 2 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. The service provides a range of non-surgical cosmetic interventions, which are not within the CQC’s scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect and report on those aspects of the service.

Our key findings were:

• The service provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• The provider treated patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The provider adjusted how they delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The way the service was managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Proceed with conducting the second cycle of recent clinical audits to identify and implement, where appropriate, any improvements to the service.
• Proceed with identifying a means, and make provision for, patients’ healthcare records to be retained in the event that the provider ceases operation.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care