Diet UK

Updated 27 September 2021

Diet UK in Preston is a private weight loss service provided by Diet UK Ltd. It is located on a first floor premises in Preston town centre. Currently all consultations are being carried out remotely by telephone or video link. Patients are seen by a doctor and there is a charge for any medicines supplied. The service is available to adults aged 18 and over, and is open from Monday to Thursday between 10am and 4pm.

How we inspected this service

Before the inspection we gathered and reviewed information from the provider. During this inspection we spoke with the Registered Manager and members of the management and administration team. We received feedback from patients electronically and reviewed a range

of documents

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 27 September 2021

This service is rated as Good overall.

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? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Diet UK as part of our inspection programme.

Diet UK provides weight loss services for adults, including the provision of medicines for the purposes of weight loss under the supervision of a doctor.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. 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. Diet UK provides a range of non-surgical cosmetic interventions, for example, dermal fillers which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

The clinic employs two doctors, one of whom 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.

19 people provided feedback about the service. All the feedback was positive.

Our key findings were:

• The doctors provided information and advice to support weight loss.
• The provider had robust systems for obtaining patient feedback.
• Patients felt supported and staff were helpful.
• The service had a clear vision and strategy and engaged well with staff.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review audit criteria and develop action plans to provide assurance that prescribing is in line with policy and best practice guidelines.
• Consistently record decision making where more than 30 days medication is supplied, or new supplies are made earlier than required.
• Review and update the medicines policy to ensure it reflects current guidance on prescribing and working with patients’ GPs.
• Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available.

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