Archived: National Slimming & Cosmetic Clinics (Crawley)

Updated 20 July 2018

NSCC Crawley is an independent provider weight management services, including prescribed medicines, dietary and lifestyle advice. The clinic is located in Crawley town centre on the second floor of a shared building. There is toilet access within the clinic. The clinic currently does not offer step-free access for patients. The clinic is open four days per week, Wednesday to Saturday inclusive.

We carried out this inspection on 15 February 2018. The inspection team was comprised of two members of the CQC medicines optimisation team, a Pharmacist Specialist and Regional Medicines Manager. We reviewed information relevant to this service before the inspection, including information obtained directly from the provider. We also interviewed clinical and non-clinical staff, reviewed a range of documents and obtained patient feedback via comment cards.

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 20 July 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 15 February 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 providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was 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 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.

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 (Crawley) 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.

Before the inspection, we looked at a range of information that we hold about the clinic. This included the most recent inspection report from June 2014 and any additional information received about the service. We also looked at information submitted by the service in response to our provider information request.

CQC inspected the service on 20 May 2014 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding supporting workers. We checked these areas as part of an unannounced inspection and found this had been resolved.

National Slimming and Cosmetic Clinics (Crawley) is an independent provider of weight management services, including prescribed medicines, dietary and lifestyle advice.

The clinic manager is in the process of becoming 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 looked at comment cards completed by patients who use the clinic. Eleven people provided feedback about the service. Feedback about the service provided was almost always positive.

Our key findings were:

• The premises were clean and tidy.
• Staff told us they felt supported to undertake their work and were happy to raise any concerns with their manager.
• Staff interacted with patients in a caring manner.
• Patient feedback about their experience of the service was almost always positive.

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

• Review their processes for records of controlled drugs which were awaiting destruction.
• Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available.

Review the labelling of supplied medicines to include the quantity supplied.