Advanced Skin Limited

Updated 5 August 2021

Advanced Skin Limited is located on the outskirts of Manchester City Centre and is known as:

Lumiere Clinic

38 City Road East

Manchester

M15 4QN

The service is located on the ground floor of a city building. The entrance has full disabled access which leads to what was (prior to COVID-19) a small seated reception area. Facilities include two treatment rooms with all staffing areas closed to the public.

The service is led by two clinical managing directors (one male and one female) and they employ one laser therapist as part of the clinical team. There is also a small team of administration staff supporting the service.

The service provides a full range of rejuvenation treatments for a wide variety of aesthetic and skin conditions. Treatments includes anti-wrinkle injections, dermal fillers, thread lifts, chemical peels and laser treatments. The service also offers diagnosis and treatment of dermatology (term for the study of the skin and various diseases) and hair conditions such as eczema, moles, skin cancer, and hair loss.

The service is open as follows:

Monday - 10:00 am — 20:00 pm

Tuesday - 10:00 am — 20:00 pm

Wednesday - 10:00 am — 20:00 pm

Thursday - 10.000 am — 20:00 pm

Friday - 10:00 am — 17:00 pm

Saturday - 10:00 am — 17:00 pm

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.

Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information and policies about the service. We carried out an announced visit on 22 June 2021. During our visit we:

• Spoke with a range of staff including managing directors and administrative staff.
• Observed the patient’s journey and how patients were cared for.

Updated 5 August 2021

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 at Advanced Skin Limited as part of our inspection programme.

We did not speak directly to people who use the service during this inspection due to the risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

People attend for appointments and day case procedures only. Prior to the inspection we provided the service with details to allow patients to share their experiences directly with the CQC electronically but we received no responses.

Our key findings were:

• The service had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. The strategy to deliver this vision had been produced and was regularly reviewed and discussed with staff.
• The service had developed a programme of quality improvement through clinical and internal audits. These were used to monitor quality, make improvements and to provide quality auditable data. Annual reviews also took place.
• The service had been awarded three accolades between 2019/2020. One award nominated by a patient was ““Best Patient/Customer Transformation & Experience Award”.
• All staff fully understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised and transparent throughout the whole service.

We saw the following outstanding practice:

The service offered a skin care treatment for patients receiving acne treatment and felt the current brand of product used was not performing as required. The service therefore had developed and produce their own after care skin cream called ‘Dr Nicole Dermatology 3 in 1 cream ’. The cream is only available directly through the service and since the development in late 2019, patients have reported outcomes to be much more effective than previous treatments tried. Patients said the cream resulted in a reduction in acne flare and a calming effect on their skin helping to relieve patients’ symptoms after receiving inhouse treatment.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care