Sk:n - Norwich

Updated 4 February 2022

Sk:n – Norwich is operated by Lasercare Clinics (Harrogate) Limited, 34 Harborne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3AA. The provider has over 50 clinics registered with the CQC in England. A link to the clinic’s website is below:

www.sknclinics.co.uk/clinics/the-midlands/norwich-unthank-road

The clinic is registered to treat patients aged 18 and over. The services offered include those that fall under registration, such as mole removal, minor skin procedures involving a surgical procedure and medical acne treatment. Other procedures, that do not fall under scope of registration include non-surgical wart and verruca removal, lip fillers, skin peels, anti-ageing injectables, dermal fillers and laser hair removal.

The clinic is located close to the city centre and cathedral in a largely residential area. There is limited parking at the location with on street parking close by.

The clinic is open seven days a week; Monday, between 10am and 8pm, Tuesday, Wednesday 12pm and 8pm, Thursday between 10am and 8pm, Friday between 10am and 6pm, Saturday between 9am and 5pm and Sunday between 10am to 4pm. The provider’s call centre operates seven days a week.

Facilities on the ground floor include the reception/waiting area, one treatment room (which is used for regulated activities), an admin room, staff kitchen, and a disabled toilet. On the first floor there are four treatment rooms (none of which are used for regulated activities), and patient/staff toilets whilst the second floor contains a staff kitchen and staff area.

How we inspected this service

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

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 4 February 2022

This service is rated as Good overall.

This service was last inspected by the CQC on 19 June 2013. At that time providers were not rated but were inspected, and judgements made, across five key standards and at that inspection it was found that action was needed to address issues found in assessing and monitoring the quality of service provided. Specifically, the provider did not have in place an effective system to regularly assess and monitor the quality of patients’ records.

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 at Sk:n – Norwich, on 2 December 2021 as part of our inspection programme. During this inspection we saw evidence to show that the issues identified in 2013 had been addressed with systems that had been in place for several years.

Sk:n – Norwich is registered under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities:

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

This service provides independent dermatology services, offering a mix of regulated skin treatments as well as other non-regulated aesthetic treatments. 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.

At the time of the inspection there was no registered manager in place as the previous manager had left the organisation earlier that year. 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. However, we saw evidence that an application had been made by the Clinic Manager (Designate) for a new registered manager to be appointed, and that they were awaiting their Fit Person Interview.

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. However, we saw from internal surveys and reviews on social media that patients were consistently positive about the service, describing staff as professional, kind, polite, non-judgemental and caring. Patients also commented on the clinic being well maintained and clean. We did not speak with patients on the day, as there were none attending for regulated activities.

Our key findings were:

• The service had safety systems and processes in place to keep people safe. There were systems to identify, monitor and manage risks and to learn from incidents.
• There were regular reviews of the effectiveness of treatments, services, and procedures to ensure care and treatment was delivered in line with evidence-based guidelines.
• Staff treated patients with compassion, respect and kindness and involved them in decisions about their care.
• There was a clear strategy and vision for the service. The leadership and governance arrangements promoted good quality care.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care