Slimmingmedics Reading

Updated 8 June 2021

The Slimmingmedics Reading clinic provides weight loss services, including prescribed medicines and dietary advice to support weight reduction. The clinic is located on the first floor of a shared building in the town centre, and includes a reception and waiting area and one consulting room. The clinic is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

How we inspected this service

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information about the service, including the previous inspection report and information given to us by the provider. We spoke to the registered manager, weight management consultant, clinical staff and reviewed a range of documents.

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 8 June 2021

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 02 2019 Not Rated)

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Slimmingmedics Reading to follow up on breaches of regulations.

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

CQC inspected the service on 28 February 2019 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding Dignity and Respect and Good governance. We checked these areas as part of this comprehensive inspection and found they had been resolved.

Slimmingmedics Reading provides weight loss services for adults, including the provision of medicines for the purposes of weight loss under the supervision of a doctor.

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. Slimmingmedics Reading provides a range of non-surgical cosmetic interventions which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

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.

Our key findings were:

• Arrangements were in place to support good infection prevention practices including appropriate social distancing.
• The provider had clear protocols and procedures in place to support the doctors to prescribe safely, and provide information and advice to support weight loss.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available.

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