Skin Sense GP Clinic

Updated 5 April 2019

This service is provided by Skin Sense GP Clinic which is a private medical clinic located in Chelmsford, Essex in a purpose built commercial property. All treatment rooms are located on one level.

The service provides GP services to all patients. At the time of our inspection the service had less than 80 patients per year requesting regulated activities.

The regulated aspects of this service are provided by a GMC registered clinician. Support is provided by one other clinician and one receptionist.

The aspects of the service regulated by CQC includes: GP services including family planning as well as mole and skin tag removal.

The service provides the regulated activities of: Treatment of disease, disorder or injury; surgical procedures; diagnostic and screening procedures and Family Planning.

The inspection was carried out on 6th March 2019 and our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector. The team included GP specialist adviser and a member of the CQC medicines optimisation team.

During our visit we:

• Looked at the systems in place for the running of the service.

• Explored how clinical decisions were made.

• Viewed a sample of key policies and protocols which related to regulated activities.

• Spoke with staff involved in the regulated activities.

• Checked the environment and infection control measures.

• Reviewed CQC comment cards which included feedback from patients about their experiences of the 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 5 April 2019

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 6th March 2019 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

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. Skin Sense GP Clinic provides a range of non-surgical cosmetic interventions, for example Botox and Dermal Fillers which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

The lead clinician 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.

Nine people provided feedback about the service via Care Quality Commission comment cards. Feedback was positive about the service provided and staff, although some of this feedback may have been related to services not regulated by CQC.

Our key findings were:

• There were systems in place to safeguard people and their information.
• Information relating to patients was accurate and enabled staff to make appropriate treatment choices
• There were systems in place to identify, assess and manage risk.
• Patient feedback from the services satisfaction surveys and from our comment cards were positive.
• Recruitment processes included immunisation checks for Hepatitis B for clinical staff.
• There were appropriate emergency medicines and equipment kept onsite in case of anaphylactic shock.
• There were systems in place to respond to incidents and complaints. Although only one significant events and no complaints had occurred in the preceding 12 months, there was a clear structure in place to ensure that learning from incidents and complaints would be shared.
• Staff had access to appropriate training.
• Staff were aware of their roles and responsibilities.
• Governance arrangements ensured policies and procedures relevant to the management of the service were in place and kept under review.
• There was a clear commitment to regulation and using this as a framework to ensure a high and safe standard of care for patients.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice