sk:n Plymouth

Updated 5 July 2021

Sk:n – Plymouth 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:

https://www.sknclinics.co.uk/clinics/the-south/plymouth-hyde-park

This clinic first registered with the CQC in 2018 and 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 in a parade of retail outlets within a largely residential area of Plymouth. There is limited free parking outside the location, and on street parking nearby. The clinic is open five days a week; Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 12pm and 8pm, Friday between 10am and 6pm, and on Saturdays between 9am and 5pm. The provider’s call centre operates seven days a week.

Facilities on the ground floor include the reception/waiting area, three treatment rooms (one of which is used for regulated activities), a patient toilet, staff kitchen area, and a staff toilet.

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.

During the inspection we spoke with the staff present including the clinic manager, the registered manager, reception and clinical staff. We made observations of the facilities and service provision and reviewed documents, records and information held by 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 July 2021

This service is rated as Good overall.

This service was registered by the CQC on 16 April 2018 and this is the first time since then that it has been inspected and 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 – Plymouth on 19 May 2021 as part of our inspection programme.

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

• Surgical procedures.
• Diagnostic and screening 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 and 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.

The clinic is managed on a day to day basis by the clinic manager and there is a registered manager who visits the clinic several times per month but is always available for advice or support if needed. 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 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