Sk:n - Sheffield Psalter Lane

Updated 28 April 2022

The registered provider is Lasercare Clinics (Harrogate) Limited, 2 Bromwich Court, 1st Floor, Gorsey Lane, Coleshill, Birmingham, B46 1JU. The provider has more than 50 locations registered with the CQC in England. The registered provider controls the governance and standards within clinics by providing policies, procedures and advice and by auditing clinics compliance in achieving the standards.

Sk:n- Sheffield Psalter Lane is based at 172 Psalter Lane, Sheffield, S11 8UR. The service was first registered with CQC in 2012. It was inspected in 2014 but not rated. This is the first rated inspection of the service. The service provides several regulated activities which include doctor-led minor surgical procedures including the excision of moles and skin lesions. Activities outside the CQC scope of regulation include laser hair removal, skin peels and anti-ageing injections. The service is registered to treat patients aged 18 years and over.

The clinic opening times are:

Tuesday- Thursday 12-8pm

Friday 11-7pm

Saturday 9-6pm

Sunday 10-5pm

The service is run from premises over two floors which are leased by the provider. The premises include a suite of consultation and treatment rooms, a reception area and a toilet on the ground floor. Minor surgical procedures are provided to patients on the ground floor level. The staff team is comprised of a clinic manager, assistant manager and two consultant plastic surgeons who have practicing privileges to perform minor surgical procedures, they are supported by a nurse and there are three practitioners providing non regulated aesthetic treatments. Staff are supported by the provider’s regional and national management and governance teams.

How we inspected this service:

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting an interview with the consultant plastic surgeon using telephone conferencing
• Staff completing interview templates
• Requesting evidence including documents relating to the management of the service from the provider prior to the inspection
• Reviewing patient feedback received by the provider
• A short site visit

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 28 April 2022

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 13/02/2014 – inspected but not rated).

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-Sheffield Psalter Lane as part of our inspection programme. The inspection was carried out to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008. The service registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2012 and was inspected in 2014 but not rated. This was the first rated inspection of the service.

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. Sk:n-Sheffield Psalter Lane provides a range of non-surgical cosmetic interventions, for example, laser hair removal and anti-ageing injections which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

Sk:n- Sheffield Psalter Lane is registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities:

Diagnostic and screening procedures, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The clinic manager 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.

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 on-line feedback reviews that patients were mostly positive about the service, describing staff as professional, kind and caring. We did not speak with patients on the day, as there were none attending for regulated activities.

Our key findings were:

• The provider had systems and processes for monitoring and managing risks.
• Best practice guidance was followed when providing treatment to patients.
• Staff were clear on their roles and responsibilities and had received mandatory training relevant to their role.
• Patient feedback was acted on.
• There was a clear strategy and vision for the service. The leadership and governance arrangements promoted good quality care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review the interpreter system in place for patients whose first language is not English.

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