Brighton Skin Surgery

Updated 18 August 2023

Brighton Skin Surgery provides an independent, doctor-led dermatology minor surgery service. Procedures offered include skin tag, cyst, mole, wart and cherry or blood spot removal. The service is based within a local NHS GP practice, located on the outskirts of the city of Brighton and Hove.

The Registered Provider is Dr Avni Patel.

Brighton Skin Surgery is located at Mile Oak Medical Centre, Chalky Road, Brighton BN41 2WF.

The service's opening times are:

Monday to Friday: 9am to 5pm - enquiries only.

Fridays and occasional Tuesdays: minor surgery services by appointment.

Services are provided by the medical director, an experienced GP with a special interest in dermatology, who holds a Diploma in Dermatology. There are no other staff employed by the service.

The service is run from a minor surgical suite which is leased by the provider. The service utilises a reception and waiting area which is staffed and managed by the host GP practice. Access to the premises and the minor surgical suite are at street level to support patients with limited mobility.

Updated 18 August 2023

This service is rated as Good overall .

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? - Good

Are services effective? - Good (carried over from previous inspection)

Are services caring? - Good (carried over from previous inspection)

Are services responsive? - Good (carried over from previous inspection)

Are services well-led? - Good (carried over from previous inspection)

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Brighton Skin Surgery on 17 June 2022. We identified breaches of regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 and issued a requirement notice. The service was rated as requires improvement for providing safe services. It was rated as good overall and good for providing effective, caring, responsive and well led services.

We carried out this inspection of Brighton Skin Surgery on 14 July 2023, to confirm that the service now met the legal requirements in relation to those breaches of regulation and to ensure sufficient improvements had been made. As a result of this inspection, the service is now rated as good for providing safe services. Our ratings of good for effective, caring, responsive and well led services are carried over from the previous inspection.

We carried out an announced visit to the service on 14 July 2023. We spoke to staff and reviewed documentary evidence during our site visit.

Brighton Skin Surgery provides an independent, doctor-led dermatology, minor surgery service. Procedures offered include skin tag, cyst, mole, wart and cherry or blood spot removal.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of all of the services it provides.

Brighton Skin Surgery is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the following regulated activities: Treatment of disease, disorder or injury, Diagnostic and screening procedures and Surgical procedures.

The medical director 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.

We found that the service had made improvements since our previous inspection and was compliant with the requirement notice. In particular:

• The provider had developed monitoring processes to fully assure themselves that the premises they were leasing were safe and that health and safety requirements were met.
• Risks associated with Legionella, electrical and fire safety arrangements within the premises were appropriately assessed and managed.
• Appropriate records were held relating to staff immunisations, in line with current guidance.

The areas where the provider had made other improvements were:

• Information was provided for patients on the service's website about how to make a complaint.
• Policies were monitored to ensure their timely review.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Develop processes to record assurance checks undertaken to review health and safety monitoring arrangements.

Dr Sean O'Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care