We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 30 November 2017 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?
Our findings were:
Are services safe?
We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Are services effective?
We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Are services caring?
We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Are services responsive?
We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Are services well-led?
We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Background
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.
CQC inspected the service on 6 July 2017 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding systems and policies to govern activities within the clinic to include: recruitment processes, electrical testing or regular calibration of equipment, infection control, fire safety, risks or response to medical emergencies and risks of lone working. We also required the provider to put in place a system to ensure the clinician had access to up to date safety alerts.
We checked these areas as part of this comprehensive inspection and found these had been resolved.
Harmony Medical Diet Clinic provides a private weight reduction service for adults and supplies medicines and dietary advice to the patients who use the service. The service operates from a first floor consulting room above a parade of shops in Bedford town centre. It is open from 10am to 4pm on Thursdays.
The clinic was run by one doctor; there were no support staff. The registered manager was a doctor but did not work regularly within the business. 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 a 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 runs two further clinics in Coventry and London. The regulated manager provides supervision and support to the doctor who provides the service.
We collected feedback about the service by speaking to five patients during the inspection. Patients said the doctor was knowledgeable, and they received lifestyle and dietary advice in addition to medicines. Patients told us they felt supported to lose weight.
Our key findings were:
- Patients were provided with a range of information on diet, exercise and any medicines that were prescribed.
- Feedback from patients was positive about the care they received.
- The service was flexible to fit in with patient choice: patients could visit the doctor for weight management advice and be weighed as often as they wished. There was no charge for this type of consultation.
- The doctor was knowledgeable about strategies to improve weight loss and had produced information for patients to support healthy diets.
- The doctor had systems in place to monitor the clinical efficacy of the service provided
- The service used recognised screening processes to identify patients who could be at risk of eating disorders or co-morbidities.
- Medicines were prescribed in line with the service prescribing policy which reflected national guidance.
There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:
- Consider the need to include information on the website for patients on how to raise a concern or complaint.
- Review the need to provide in-house appraisal for the doctor working in the service and formally record occasions of clinical supervision.
- Review and risk assess the appropriateness of having a family member or friend as a translator.