Archived: The Slimming Clinic

Updated 13 February 2020

Updated 13 February 2020

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Slimming Clinic, Middlesbrough to rate the service as part of our inspection programme.

The Slimming Clinic, Middlesbrough is a private clinic which provides medical treatment for weight loss, and part of a national slimming clinic provider.

The service does not currently have a Registered manager and was being overseen by the manager of another local service. A newly employed manager was in the process of applying to become 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 patients provided feedback about the service. All the feedback was positive. Patients told us that staff were very helpful and kind. Patients felt encouraged and supported.

Our key findings were :

• Patients felt supported and staff were helpful.
• The systems for monitoring medicine fridge temperatures did not provide assurance that medicines stored in the fridge were safe to use.
• There provider had good oversight and governance in place.
• The clinic was in a good state of repair, clean and tidy.

The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulation is:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report.)

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available.
• Consider and risk assess the need for access to interpretation services for patients where English is not their first language.

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