Southface Dermatology Clinic

Updated 13 June 2022

Southface Dermatology Clinic is operated by Southface Consultancy Limited, from premises at 1 Avenue Road, Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 2BU.

Southface Consultancy Limited trades under it’s parent organisation Southface Skin Clinic Limited, which itself operates under a separate CQC registration of Nuffield Health Bournemouth.

Finances are linked through the parent organisation Southface Skin Clinic Limited and patients are seen for care in both locations. For example - a patient may be seen for a consultation at Southface Skin Clinic Ltd and then have surgery at Southface Consultancy Limited (Southface Dermatology Clinic – Christchurch, or vice versa).

For the purpose of registration each organisation has its own registration with Companies House and Southface Consultancy Limited is registered with CQC as a separate provider.

We only inspected and reported on the services which are within scope of registration with the CQC relating to Southface Consultancy Limited, at their premises of 1 Avenue Road, Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 2BU.

A link to the clinic’s website is below:

https://www.southfaceskin.com/

The clinic first registered with the CQC in August 2020 and is registered to treat patients aged 12 and over. The services offered include those that fall under registration, such as mole checks/ removal, minor dermatological operations (removal of skin tags, warts and cosmetic blemishes), and medical acne treatment. Other procedures, that do not fall under scope of registration include non-surgical wart and verruca removal, skin peels, anti-ageing injectables, and dermal fillers.

The Clinic is located on a residential road and is the first floor of a detached house, with free off-road parking. The clinic has a reception area, two treatment rooms, one used for surgical procedures and the other for activities which are out of scope of regulated activity such as laser hair removal. Only private healthcare is provided. It is open for regulated activity Tuesday 9-5pm Wednesday 9-6.30pm Thursday 9-5pm.

How we inspected this service

Before the inspection, we asked the provider to send us some information, which was reviewed prior to the inspection day. We also reviewed information held by CQC on our internal systems.

During the inspection we spoke with all the staff present including the registered manager, the practice manager, non-clinical and clinical staff. We made observations of the facilities and service provision and reviewed documents, records and information held by 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 13 June 2022

This service is rated as Good overall.

This service was registered by the CQC on 19 August 2020 and this is the first time since then that it has been inspected and rated.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Southface Dermatology Clinic on 11th August 2021 as part of our inspection programme.

Southface Dermatology Clinic is registered under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures.
• Surgical procedures.
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

This service provides independent dermatology services, offering a mix of regulated skin treatments as well as other non-regulated aesthetic treatments. There are some exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of regulated activities and services and these are set out in and of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. We only inspected and reported on the services which are within the scope of registration with the CQC.

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.

Due to the current pandemic we were unable to obtain comments from patients via our normal process of asking the provider to place comment cards within the service location. However, we saw from internal surveys, emails and reviews on social media that patients were consistently positive about the service, describing staff as professional, caring, welcoming and friendly. Patients also commented on feeling safe. We did not speak with patients on the day, as there were none attending for regulated activities.

Our key findings were:

• The service had safety systems and processes in place to keep people safe. There were systems to identify, monitor and manage risks and to learn from incidents.
• There were regular reviews of the effectiveness of treatments, services and procedures to ensure care and treatment was delivered in line with evidence-based guidelines.
• Staff treated patients with compassion, respect and kindness and involved them in decisions about their care.
• There was a clear strategy and vision for the service. The leadership and governance arrangements promoted good quality care.

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