Archived: National Slimming & Cosmetic Clinics

Updated 3 August 2018

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.

The inspection took place on 22 March 2018.

The inspection was undertaken by a CQC Pharmacist Specialist and a Regional Medicines Manager.

National Slimming and Cosmetic Clinic Staines is based in a two storey building located near to the centre of the town of Staines. The service comprises of a reception/waiting area, kitchen area and two clinic rooms. Toilet facilities are available at the clinic. The service is open Tuesday 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm and Thursday, Friday and Saturday 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

Slimming and obesity management is provided either by a walk in or appointment based system for clients aged 18-65 years of age.

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 Clinic, Staines, 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.

The service employs a 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 obtained feedback about the service from 16 Care Quality Commission comment cards. All comments made were positive about the service. Patients found staff were always welcoming and helpful, staff were always professional and the premises were always clean and tidy.

We also spoke with six patients using 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 3 August 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 22 March 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 practice 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 NSCC Staines 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.

Our key findings were:

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

• Review how medical records are reviewed to ensure consistency of recording by different doctors working in the service.
• Review the transfer of information to the electronic Human Resources records system to make sure it is kept up to date. Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available