LINIA Skin Clinic

Updated 13 September 2019

LINIA Skin Clinic is a consultant led dermatology service. The service provides medical dermatology, and aesthetic procedures, the aesthetic procedures are exempt by law from CQC regulation.

Services are provided from 64 Harley Street, London W1G7HB in the London borough of Westminster. All patients attending the clinic referred themselves for treatment. The patients seen at the service are predominately for aesthetic procedures.

Staffing comprises of one consultant dermatologist and one receptionist/therapist.

The service is open 10am to 5pm on Monday and Wednesday, 10am to 7pm on Tuesday and Thursday and on between 10am and 4pm on Fridays. However, the service only provides dermatological treatments on a Tuesday and Thursday from 10am to 7pm. The service is registered with the CQC to provide treatment of disease, disorder or injury, surgical procedures and diagnostic and screening procedures.

Additional information about services provided are available via the provider website at

How we inspected this service:

Before visiting we reviewed a range of information we held about the service and asked the service to send us a range of information. During the visit we spoke with two staff members which included the registered Manager and the receptionist/therapist. We gained feedback from the 20 completed CQC comment cards. We also observed telephone interactions and reviewed service policies, procedures and other relevant documentation.

Further details about the service can be found on the provider website:

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 13 September 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 12 April 2018 – the service was not rated at this time).

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 LINIA Skin Clinic 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.

LINIA Skin Clinic is a consultant led dermatology service. The service provides private medical dermatology, and aesthetic procedures to paying patients aged 18 years and over. Aesthetic procedures are not regulated by the CQC. Therefore, at LINIA Skin Clinic, we were only able to inspect the services which were subject to regulation.

The consultant dermatologist 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. 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 general exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of service and these are set out in Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Feedback from people using the service was very positive. People spoke highly of the service they received from the clinic and told us they would recommend the service to others.

Our key findings were:

• There were safe and effective recruitment procedures in place to ensure staff were suitable for their role.
• People were offered appointments at a date and time convenient to them.
• People had access to and received detailed and clear information about treatments to enable them to make an informed decision.
• Staff had access to information they needed to carry out assessments in a timely and accessible way and in line with relevant and current evidence-based guidance and standards.
• Staff were supported with their personal development but had not completed all core training.
• There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems for accountability to support good governance and management.
• There was evidence that the practice took into account feedback from patients.
• The provider had a clear vision to deliver high quality care for patients.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Consider implementing a business continuity plan.
• Obtain assurances that delegated responsibilities, such as health and safety checks and emergency equipment and medicines checks are regularly undertaken.
• Carry out an infection prevention and control audit specifically for the rooms used by LINIA Skin Clinic.
• Ensure staff complete core training.
• Review safeguarding flowchart to reflect policies and procedures for LINIA Skin Clinic.
• Ensure details of how to make a complaint are readily available for patients.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care