No. 23 Skin

Updated 6 February 2023

No.23 Skin is an independent health service which operates out of 23 Andsell Street, London, W8 5BN in a three storey building, with consulting rooms on the top floor, reception and aesthetic practitioner’s treatment room on the ground floor and kitchen and storage area in the basement. The service offers end to end care for skin needs and provides medical, cosmetic and wellbeing services. Medical services provided include dermatology consultations, skin checks, mole checks, acne treatments, skin tag removal and microneedling. The service also offered other wellbeing services.

The service consists of a medical director/ co-founder, a consultant dermatologist (on a consultancy basis), an aesthetic practitioner/ administrative support (on a freelance basis) and the founder of the service. The reception area is on the ground floor of the building and is accessible to patients with mobility issues. The service arranges for patients with mobility issues to be seen in the ground floor treatment room. The service is open on Tuesday from 10am to 8pm, on Wednesday from 10am to 6pm, on Thursday from 10am to 3pm, on Friday from 9am to 3pm and on Saturday from 10am to 1pm. The practice phone is staffed 24 hours a day for any urgent enquiries and minor surgery patients are provided with the doctor’s direct contact number. The service treats adults and children over the age of 13. The service is registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities: diagnostic and screening procedures; surgical procedures; and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Updated 6 February 2023

This service is rated as Good overall.

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 No.23 Skin on 24 November 2022 as part of our inspection programme. This was the first inspection of this service.

No.23 Skin is a dermatology skin clinic, offering aesthetic, minor surgery and diagnostic and screening services.

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. No.23 Skin provides a range of non-surgical cosmetic interventions, for example, clinical facials, peels, LED light, skincare, extractions and providing advice, which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

Our key findings were:

• Care records were written and managed in a way that kept patients safe. Clinical records were completed thoroughly and reflected that a high standard of care was provided to patients.
• Patients’ immediate and ongoing needs were fully assessed.
• The service used information about care and treatment to make improvements and was actively involved in quality improvement activity.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• The service actively sought and acted on feedback from patients to improve services. We saw evidence of positive feedback from patients.
• The service understood the needs of patients and improved services in response to those needs.
• The service was accessible, and patients were able to access care and treatment within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• There was a clear vision and set of values which supported person-centred care. Staff we spoke with understood the vision, values and strategy and their role in achieving them.
• There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management.
• There were clear and effective processes for managing risk, issues and performance.

Whilst we found no breaches in regulations, the provider should:

• Take steps to improve the oversight of staff recruitment files and be assured that they contain all relevant information in line with the provider’s policy.
• Continue to review staff training so that all staff receive timely mandatory training including safeguarding and infection prevention.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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