The Care Quality Commission
  • Clinic
  • Slimming clinic

Archived: National Slimming & Cosmetic Clinics (Crawley)

54 The Boulevard, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1XH 0800 917 9334

Provided and run by:
Codegrange Limited

Important: The provider of this service changed. See new profile

All Inspections

15 February 2018

During a routine inspection

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.

20 May 2014

During an inspection looking at part of the service

This inspection was undertaken to review the actions taken by the service in response to a Warning Notice issued on the 24 April 2014.

We previously inspected the service in August 2013 and February 2014 where we identified there were inadequate systems in place to ensure that staff received appropriate training, professional development, supervision and appraisal relevant to the work they performed.

We had concerns that the service had not taken any action to comply with the identified breaches of the regulation and a Warning Notice was issued.

At this inspection we reviewed the staff files, policies and procedures and spoke with the staff present in the clinic. We found that the service had started to take action to address the issues. There was evidence of induction, supervision and appraisals. We found that although induction was well documented for staff, training and development were areas which could be improved in order to ensure that people received care and treatment from appropriately trained staff.

28 August 2013

During a routine inspection

We spoke with four patients of the clinic and each of them told us that they were very happy with the services that they had received from National Slimming & Cosmetics Clinics (Crawley). Patients told us that staff were friendly and helpful and that they had confidence in the doctor they saw. Patients demonstrated an understanding of the benefits and risks associated with the unlicensed drugs they had been prescribed.

The clinic had systems in place to ensure that people's health was monitored by a professional at every visit and that medicines were not prescribed unless certain criteria were met. This meant that the clinic looked at patients on an individual basis.

We found evidence that the clinic had mechanisms in place for keeping clinical staff up to date with legislative changes and current best practice. It was not clear, however, exactly what specialist training they had completed and who was responsible for their clinical supervision. Staff carrying out clinical audits did not have the professional expertise to do so which meant that they may not have the skills required to identify clinical mistakes or improvements.