Archived: Skintique Clinic

This service is rated as Requires improvement overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

Are services effective? – Requires improvement

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive at Skintique Clinic on 14 June 2022. This is the first time this service has been inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following its registration as a new service in June 2020.

The service provides, phlebotomy, some beauty treatments, some of which are in scope of CQQ regulations such as, treatments for headaches and migraines, administration of Semaglutide (Ozempic) and liraglutide injections (Saxenda) for weight management, treatments for hyperhidrosis (common condition in which a person sweats excessively) and Bruxism (a problem in which you unconsciously grind or clench your teeth). Some treatments carried out by the service are out of scope of CQC regulations, for example, beauty treatments, laser hair removal.

There are some exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of regulated activities and services and these are set out in Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 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 only staff who were associated with the delivery of regulated activities were the nominated individual, two registered managers and a nurse. There were other staff on the premises who provided the non-regulated activities

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. We saw from reviews on the provider’s website and from google reviews that patients were consistently positive about the service, describing staff as professional and helpful. We did not speak with patients on the day, as there were none attending for regulated activities

A director and a business manager at the location are the CQC registered manager’s. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the CQC 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.

Our key findings were:

• We found that the service was caring and compassionate towards patients and we observed many positive comments received from those who had used the service.
• There was a lack of good governance in some areas.
• The service could not demonstrate they had reliable systems in place for the appropriate and safe handling of medicines.
• Prescribing was not audited or reviewed to identify areas for improvement.
• Clinical records reviewed did not always contain the required relevant information to ensure patient safety.
• The process for patient safety alerts was not effective.
• The service involved patients in decisions about the care and treatment.
• Appointments were pre-bookable by phone or in person.
• Information on how to complain was readily available.

The areas where the provide must make improvements are:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

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.
• Develop the training matrix so that training records of staff training are documented as completed and all staff immunisations are all recorded.
• Demonstrate that actions from risk assessments and infection control audits are documented when completed.
• Review the process for staff meetings with a view to a set agenda.
• Look to provide leaflets in different languages.

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