London Hair Transplant Clinic

Updated 14 August 2023

London Hair Transplant Clinic is a cosmetic surgery service operated by London Hair Transplant Clinic Ltd. The service is an independent healthcare service and does not offer any NHS care. The service mostly carried out hair transplants, but in the 13 months before our inspection had also begun to offer more invasive cosmetic surgery procedures including breast augmentation, rhinoplasty, liposuction and abdominoplasty. The service provided care to privately paying adults, but also offered rhinoplasties to young adults aged 16 and above.

The service was rated inadequate following a comprehensive inspection in February 2023. We used our enforcement powers to serve an urgent notice of decision to impose conditions to the provider under Section 31 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. We also used our enforcement powers to serve a Warning Notice to the provider under section 29 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. This was served for failing to comply with Regulation 17: Good Governance.

We carried out a focused, follow up inspection of Safe, Effective and Well led domains to check compliance with concerns identified during our previous inspection. In order to re-rate Safe, Effective and Well led, we inspected and reported on all the key lines of enquiries.

The service had a registered manager, who was also the lead clinician.

Updated 14 August 2023

Our rating of this service improved. We rated it as requires improvement because:

We carried out a focused follow up inspection of Safe, Effective and Well led domains to check compliance with concerns identified in conditions imposed in February 2023 and warning notice imposed in March 2023. At this inspection we found:

• Although the provider had taken action to comply with the provisions of Regulation 12: Safe Care and Treatment, and Regulation 17: Good Governance, there were still some areas of poor practice.
• The service did not always control infection risk well. Staff did not always use equipment and control measures to protect patients, themselves and others from infection.
• The design, maintenance and use of facilities, premises and equipment did not wholly keep people safe.
• The service did not always use systems and processes to safely prescribe, administer, record and store medicines.
• Leaders did not fully manage the priorities and issues the service faced. They did not always identify and escalate relevant risks and issues. There was no formal written strategy to turn the vision of the service into action. Not all staff could access systems to find the data they needed to understand performance, make decisions and improvements.

However:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records.
• The service had recently implemented systems to monitor the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent.
• Leaders were visible and approachable in the service for patients and staff. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care.

Updated 14 August 2023

See the overall summary above for details.