Sk:n - Portsmouth St Georges Square

Updated 10 April 2020

Sk:n - Portsmouth St Georges Square is operated by Lasercare Clinics (Harrogate) Limited, 34 Harborne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3AA. The provider has over 50 clinics registered with CQC in England. A link to the clinic’s website is shown below:

www.sknclinics.co.uk/clinics/the-south/portsmouth-st-georges-square

This clinic first registered with the CQC in 2010 and is registered to treat patients aged 18 and over. The services offered include those that fall under registration, such as mole removal, minor skin procedures involving a surgical procedure and medical acne treatment. Other procedures, that do not fall under scope of registration include non-surgical wart and verruca removal, lip fillers, skin peels, anti-ageing injectables, dermal fillers and laser hair removal.

The clinic is located close in Portsea, close to Portsmouth Harbour train station and the university, in a small business park. There is limited free parking but nearby there are metered parking spaces and a large shopping centre with parking. It is open five days a week; Tuesday to Thursday between 12pm and 8pm, Fridays between 10am and 6pm and on Saturdays between 9am and 6pm. Registerable services are only provided on Tuesdays between 2pm and 8pm. The provider’s call centre operates seven days a week.

Facilities on the ground floor include the reception area, a ground floor treatment room and a disabled access toilet. On the first floor, accessed by stairs only, there are two further treatment rooms, the office and a staff room.

How we inspected this service

Before the inspection, we asked to provider to send us some information, which was reviewed prior to the inspection day. We also reviewed information held by CQC on our internal systems. We had also sent the provider a comments cards box and comment cards to be handed to patients using the service to get their views, approximately two weeks before the inspection.

During the inspection we spoke with the registered manager, a regional manager, an audit manager and a senior therapist. We made observations of the facilities and service provision and reviewed documents, records and information held by the service. After the inspection the specialist advisor spoke with the medical director (consultant dermatologist) by telephone as they were not working at the location on the day we inspected.

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 10 April 2020

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.

We received 22 comment cards from patients. They were consistently positive about the service, describing staff as professional, kind, polite, non-judgemental and caring. Patients also commented on the clinic being well maintained and clean. We did not speak with patients on the day, as there were none attending for services which were in the scope of the regulated activities.

Our key findings were :

• The service had safety systems and processes in place to keep people safe. There were systems to identify, monitor and manage risks and learn from incidents.
• There were regular reviews of the effectiveness of treatments and services, and procedures to ensure care and treatment was delivered in line with evidence-based guidelines.
• Staff treated patients with compassion, respect and kindness and involved them in decisions about their care.
• There was a clear strategy and vision for the service. The leadership and governance arrangements promoted good quality care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Secure the locked external clinical waste bin.
• Define the appropriate emergency medicines required for the service.
• Provide information in a range of appropriate languages and formats.

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