Skin Excellence Clinics (Wells)

Updated 26 April 2023

• Skin Excellence Clinic Wells is operated by the provider Skin Excellence Clinics Ltd and is registered with CQC to provide the regulated activities: Surgical Procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury. During the inspection we found they were providing treatment to approximately 2 patients a year, which saw them send samples to the hospital for testing and required them to be registered for the Regulated activity of Diagnostic and screening. The provider has now submitted the required documentation to correct this.
• Skin Excellence Clinic Wells is registered to provide services to patients over the age of 18.
• The provider Skin Excellence Clinic Ltd has a second location known as Skin Excellence Clinics. This is situated in the area of Plymouth and did not form part of this inspection.
• The service offers an appointment only service between the core hours of 9am to 3pm on Mondays and Tuesdays and 10am to 6:30pm on Thursdays and Fridays. The service occasionally offers Saturday appointments between 10am and 5pm.
• Outside of these hours patients can contact them by phone for post procedure concerns. Any concerns will be managed by the service where appropriate or signposted to the relevant service.
• The service is run by the lead clinician and a clinic manager. They are supported by a nurse, doctor with GP background and administration staff. Administration staff are shared with the second location.
• The provider serves approximately 2500 patients a year across 2 locations.

How we inspected this service

Prior to the inspection, we reviewed a range of information provided from the pre-inspection information request and any notifications we had received from the service.

During our visit:

• We spoke with the registered manager, clinical lead and staff.
• We reviewed documentation and records including clinical records.
• We reviewed patient feedback collated by the service.
• Observed patient and staff interactions whist they were waiting for appointments.
• We made observations of the premises and facilities where the service was provided.

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 26 April 2023

This service is rated as Good overall. Skin Excellence Clinics (Wells) was registered to provide regulated activities in July 2021. This was the first inspection of this location since registration.

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 Skin Excellence Clinics (Wells) on 15 March 2023 as part of our planned inspection programme.

Skin Excellence Clinics (Wells) 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 Excellence Clinics (Wells) provides a range of non-surgical cosmetic interventions, for example wrinkle reduction injections by botulinum toxin injections (Botox), skin and lip filler treatments, platelet rich plasma (PRP) skin treatments for cosmetic purposes which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services. PRP is a type of therapy that uses injection of a concentration of patients own platelets. We only inspected element of the service which fell under our scope of regulated activities, for example thread lifts (a non-surgical procedure that aims to lift and sculpt the face), minor skin surgeries, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), PRP treatments for the purpose of treating medical conditions such as urinary stress incontinence and erectile dysfunction.

The provider has 2 locations, 1 which is at the address above and a second clinic located in Plymouth. The service 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.

The provider’s Nominated individual and Clinical Lead is a Member of the British College of Aesthetic Medicine and Member of the American Cellular Medicine Association and registered with the General Medical Council.

We reviewed patient feedback which had been collated by the service.

Our key findings were:

• The service had embedded systems, processes and operating procedures to keep patients safe, to manage incidents and safeguard patients from abuse.

• The service monitored and reviewed the effectiveness of the care provided. Staff held appropriate qualifications and knowledge to provide quality patient care.

• Patients were treated with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

• The service organised and delivered services to meet patient’s needs. Patients were well informed about the service provided.

• The service took feedback seriously and responded to concerns appropriately.

• Managers had the skills and capacity to deliver quality care. There were clear roles, responsibilities and systems to support governance and management. There were effective processes to managing risk, learning from incidents or concerns and continuous improvement.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review recruitment and training systems to make sure all recruitment checks are carried out; and staff receive appropriate training to provide care and treatment.

• Embed new systems to make sure all staff have vaccinations records in line with guidance.
  
  
• Review accessibility arrangements for patients and consider improvement to enable those patients with hearing loss or translations needs are supported to access the service.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services