Snowberry Lane Clinic

Updated 24 August 2022

The service operates from Ridgeway House, 49 Shurnhold, Melksham, Wiltshire, SN12 6DF. The clinic’s facilities are spread over two floors and include seven treatment rooms, a minor operations room and a range of specialist medical equipment used in the delivery of their services, such as

lasers. There was easy access to a waiting area where clients had access to leaflets explaining the treatments on offer. Further information can be found on the clinic’s website www.snowberrylane.co.uk.

The Registered Provider is Lasercare Clinics (Harrogate) Limited, who provide services from more than 50 locations across England.

The clinic is open six days a week, the opening times are Monday to Thursday 9am – 7:30pm,

Friday 9am – 4pm and Saturdays 9am – 2:00pm.

How we inspected this service

• During the site visit, we spoke with the clinic manager and one of the consultants.
• We looked at records related to client assessments and the provision of care and treatment.
• Reviewed personnel files, service policies and procedures and other records concerned with running the service.

To get to the heart of clients’ 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 24 August 2022

This service is rated as Good overall.

We have rated the key questions 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 inspection at Snowberry Lane Clinic. This is the first time we have inspected this practice under the current registered provider.

It was inspected under a different registered provider in June 2019 and was rated as Good overall.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Snowberry Lane Clinic on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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 the Care Quality Commission (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.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of the provision of: -

• Treatment of diseases, injury and disorder
• Diagnostic and Screening Procedures
• Surgical Procedures

The provider specialises in a combination of medical aesthetic treatments and anti-ageing medicine, as well as offering skin rejuvenation and a range of dermatology treatments. This service provides independent doctor-led dermatology services, offering a mix of regulated skin treatments and minor surgical procedures, as well as other non-regulated aesthetic treatments.

The aesthetic cosmetic treatments provided are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, we were only able to inspect the provision of advice and treatment and not the aesthetic cosmetic services.

The practice 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:

• The service had systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen.
• Risks to clients were always assessed and well managed, including those relating to safeguarding and recruitment checks.
• The clinic had policies and procedures to govern activity.
• The way the service was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.
• The service proactively sought feedback from staff and clients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.

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