ID Medical - Minor Skin Surgery Service

Updated 26 April 2023

ID Medical – Minor Skin Surgery Service.

Grove Medical Centre

Grove Road

Felixstowe

Suffolk

IP11 9GA

www.id-medical.com/minor-surgery-service-ipswich-east-suffolk

• The service provides Level 3 Intermediate skin minor surgery for larger skin lesions and local anaesthetic surgery and lesions in cosmetically sensitive areas – excluding skin cancer. The aim is to improve access and manage more patients in the community setting giving patients the choice to attend an accessible service across their local area and reduce pressure on secondary care dermatology services. The service is provided to patients aged 16 years and above.
• The service has a staff of six, three are non-clinical including the clinic coordinator, the portfolio manager and the head of quality and improvement. Three clinical staff including a general surgeon, a GP with special interest in skin surgery and the healthcare assistant.
• During the first year of the service January 2022 to December 2022 there were 1733 referrals converting to 1467 appointments and 1285 procedures.
• There is accessible parking at the service location.
• The service is accessed via referrals from primary care clinicians.
• Clinics are available at the location on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays depending on demand from 8am to 6pm and a patient phone line is open from Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

How we inspected this service

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

During the inspection we spoke with staff present including the Registered Manager, clinical and non clinical staff and patients. We made observations of the facilities and service provision, and reviewed documents, records, and information held onsite at the location.

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 26 April 2023

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? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of ID Medical – Minor Skin Surgery Service on 5 April 2023, following the receipt of concerns. ID Medical's registered under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities:

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

This service provides a minor skin surgery service such as excision, shave excision, biopsy and shave biopsy working in partnership with the NHS providing a full patient pathway from diagnosis, treatment and to recovery.

The service manager is the registered manager for ID Medical – Minor Skin Surgery Service. 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.

Our key findings were:

• The service provided care in a way that kept people safe and protected them from avoidable harm. However, sharps boxes need to be made secure.
• The provider had systems to keep clinicians up to date with current evidence-based guidance.
• The service encouraged feedback from patients which was positive and included timely access to the service.
• People received care and treatment that met their expectations.
• The provider cared for people in a kind and respectful manner.
• The provider organised and delivered care and treatments to meet peoples’ needs. People could access their care and treatment in a manner that met their needs.
• The provider had appropriate processes and systems in place to monitor risk, quality and governance.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Ensure sharps boxes are safely secured.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services