The Wellfield Skin Clinic

Updated 30 March 2023

The Wellfield Skin Clinic opened in 2013 and is located in Windsor, Berkshire. The clinic provides a small range of treatments for people aged over 12 that come under scope of regulation by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

These treatments are given via pre-bookable appointments. Patients attend for an initial consultation, where a treatment plan is discussed and agreed, and then they are booked in for treatment at a later date. Only specific treatments are regulated by CQC which included treatments for a range of skin conditions (including acne and rosacea), surgical treatments for a range of skin conditions (including lumps, bumps, keloids, skin tags, moles, milia, lipoma and cyst removal), treatment for excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis) and a small range of pre-operative assessment, post-operative care for surgical procedures in vascular surgery, including micro-sclerotherapy (treatment for small varicose veins).

Treatments are provided from:

• The Wellfield Skin Clinic, 47 Alma Road, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 3HH

The service website is: www.theskinclinic.com

The Wellfield Skin Clinic is in a converted residential property alongside several other allied health clinics and services. The Wellfield Skin Clinic is managed from 2 offices and treatments are provided from 2 treatment rooms, whilst the reception area is shared with other co-located services.

The service is open Monday to Friday with a range of opening hours: Monday 2.30pm to 6.30pm, Tuesday 9.30am to 4.30pm, Wednesday 9am to 7pm, Thursday 9am to 5pm and Friday 9am to 5pm. This service is not required to offer an out of hours service. When necessary, the service could stay open longer to accommodate patient’s needs. Patients who need medical assistance out of corporate operating hours can access out of hours support via the service and this is detailed in patient literature supplied by the service.

Regulated activities (treatments regulated by CQC) are provided by a GP Skin Surgeon (who is the Medical Director) and they are supported by an aesthetic therapist, both of whom have extensive qualifications in aesthetic medicine. A clinic coordinator is supported by a contracted compliance manager to undertake the day-to-day management and running of the service.

How we inspected this service

We carried out this inspection on 9 March 2023. Before visiting the location, we looked at a range of information that we hold about the service. This included 26 items of patient feedback shared directly with CQC via the ‘Give Feedback on your Care’ Section of our website. During our visit, we interviewed staff, reviewed documents and clinical records, and made observations relating to the service and the location it was delivered from. We were shown examples of patient feedback which the provider monitored on an ongoing basis. We did not speak to patients on the day of the site visit.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following 5 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 30 March 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 The Wellfield Skin Clinic in Windsor, Berkshire on 9 March 2023. The service was registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in July 2019. We carried out this first rated inspection as part of our regulatory functions. The inspection was undertaken to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

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.

The Wellfield Skin Clinic provides a range of independent dermatology services, including non-surgical cosmetic interventions, for example anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers which are not within CQC scope of registration. We did not inspect, or report on, those services that are outside the scope of registration.

The Wellfield Skin Clinic is registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Surgical procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

Therefore, we only inspected treatments relating to medical skin and vascular conditions which included treatments (surgical and non-surgical treatment) for a range of skin conditions.

The service was founded in 2013 by a GP Skin Surgeon who is also the medical director and CQC registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the CQC 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.

Our key findings were:

• The service had clear systems to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse. The service used recognised screening processes to identify patients who could be at risk of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) (BDD is a mental disorder characterised by the obsessive idea that some aspect of the person's body or appearance is severely flawed and therefore warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix it on a daily basis).

• The service assessed needs and delivered care in line with relevant and current evidence-based guidance and standards. This included guidance from Primary Care Dermatology Society (PCDS), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD).

• Staff recognised the importance of people’s dignity and respect. Staff displayed an understanding and non-judgmental attitude when talking to patients who were seeking to resolve skin conditions and concerns regarding their appearance.

• The service had complaint policy and procedures in place and learned lessons from individual concerns, complaints and feedback. All feedback was discussed during staff meetings and recorded on the learnings log.

• There was a focus upon continuous improvement and exploration of innovations in treatment and after care to achieve optimum safe outcomes for patients.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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