City Skin Doctor Clinic

Updated 20 April 2023

City Skin Doctor Clinic is an independent health clinic which operates out of 396 Harrow Road, London, W9 2HU and occupies two stories of a building, with consulting rooms and reception on the ground floor, and training academy in the basement floor. The services offered medical services and treatments which included: minor surgery; Endolift; Polydioxanone thread lifts; treatment of hyperhidrosis with Botox; dermal fillers; blepharoplasty; skin rejuvenation; mesotherapy; platelet-rich plasma; medical microdermabrasion; mole removal; vascular lesions; skin spots treatment; acne treatment; rosacea treatment; hyperpigmentation treatment; hair problem treatments; and slimming treatments. The medical services provided were inspected as they are within CQC scope of registration. The clinic offered a range of non-surgical cosmetic treatments which included: laser treatments and facials, which are not within CQC scope of registration and we did not inspect or report on these services.

The service consists of a lead doctor, a laser and beauty therapist, a clinic manager and a receptionist. The reception area is on the ground floor of the building and is accessible to patients with mobility issues. The service is open from 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday. The service treats adults over the age of 18 only. The service treats between 100 and 200 patients a month.

The service is registered with CQC to provide the following regulated activities: treatment of disease, disorder or injury; surgical procedures; and services in slimming clinics.

How we inspected this 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 20 April 2023

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? – Requires improvement

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of City Skin Doctor Clinic on 2 February 2023 as part of our inspection programme. This was the first inspection of this service.

City Skin Doctor Clinic is a medical aesthetic clinic providing surgical, non-surgical and laser treatments.

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. City Skin Doctors Clinic provides a range of non-surgical cosmetic interventions which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

Our key findings were:

• We found gaps in the mandatory training for staff members, including the appropriate level of safeguarding training. The system for oversight of staff training was not sufficient.
• We found that the practice had a governance framework, however, it was not always effectively managing risks. This included the risks associated with keeping comprehensive clinical records, recording patient safety alerts, ensuring appropriate emergency medicines and equipment were kept on site, keeping comprehensive and up to date staff recruitment files, ensuring the staff immunisation programme was in line with UK Health Security Agency guidance and providing independent interpreter services for patients.
• We did not see evidence of any clinical audits that had been undertaken which identified areas for improvement or evidence of other quality improvement activity.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• The service actively sought and acted on feedback from patients to improve services.

The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulations are:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

In addition to the above, the practice should:

• Improve the process for patient identification and audit this process on a regular basis.
• Review and improve infection control processes, in particular in relation to the assembly of sharps bins.
• Review and improve the process and put in place a policy for the handling of pathology results.
• Improve the recording of staff meetings so that notes from meetings were available to staff members.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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