Rippon Medical Services

Updated 17 September 2021

Rippon Medical Services Limited is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities of treatment of disease, disorder, or injury (TDDI), and surgical procedures from one registered location at the following address:

• Rippon Medical Services Limited, 2 Spinners Yard, Fisher Street, Carlisle CA3 8RE

We visited this location as part of our inspection.

Rippon Medical Services is an independent outpatient clinic providing private doctor consultations, medical assessments, and the prescribing of medicines relating to treatments for acne, acne scarring, rosacea, alopecia (hair loss), allergic rhinitis (hay fever) and excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis). It also provides minor surgical procedures using local anaesthetic for the surgical excision removal of warts, moles, sebaceous cysts, lipomas and skin tags. It also provides surgical thread lifts. The service also carries out services which do not fall under the regulation of CQC and were therefore not considered during this inspection. They include cryotherapy, skin peels, dermal fillers, and wrinkle reduction treatments.

The core opening times of the service are as follows:

• Monday - 8.30am to 9.00pm
• Tuesday - 8.30am to 6.00pm
• Wednesday - 8.30am to 9.00pm
• Thursday - 8.30am to 6.00pm
• Friday - 8.30am to 5.00pm
• Saturday - 9.30am to 3.00pm
• Sunday – closed

When the service is closed, patients have access to a 24-hour phone number they can call for advice and support.

The service see an average of around 150 patients per week and consists of two members of staff: a service manager and a medical director. All facilities at the service are located on the ground floor and there is level entry to the building. Parking is available directly across the street at a public pay-and-display car park.

How we inspected this service

Prior to visiting this service, we reviewed information from stakeholders (e.g. online reviews, CQC notifications) and data submitted by the provider.

We interviewed staff and undertook observations and a review of documents both remotely and during a site visit.

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 17 September 2021

This service is rated as Outstanding overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Outstanding

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Outstanding

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Rippon Medical Services as part of our inspection programme.

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. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

Our key findings were:

• There were comprehensive systems to keep people safe, which took account of current best practice to ensure that care was delivered safely;
• The service was highly proactive in empowering patients, and supporting them to manage their own health and maximise their independence;
• Staff displayed an understanding and non-judgmental attitude to all patients;
• The service responded to patient feedback and their needs and improved their services;
• Access to care was timely;
• Leaders had the capacity and skills to deliver high-quality, sustainable care;
• There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement.

We saw the following outstanding practice:

• There was a demonstrated commitment to best practice performance and risk management systems and processes. Leaders were dedicated to reducing risk and protecting patients from harm, for example there were only two staff employed by the service but there were still arrangements for planning and monitoring the number and mix of staff needed and policies and procedures in place in the event that more staff were hired. The service had made the decision to appoint an external consultant to ensure the service was as safe as it could be.
• The refurbishment of the clinical suite had been carried out to ensure that effective infection prevention and control was at the forefront of the design. The most recent minor surgery audit in July 2021 showed that out of 240 patients undergoing minor surgical procedures at the service in the past 12 months, only two had a subsequent infection of the wound site which required treatment with antibiotics; a incidence rate of 0.83% and therefore lower than the 5% target rate suggested by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
• Feedback from people who used the service, those who were close to them, and stakeholders was consistently positive about the way staff treated people. Since June 2020 the service had received 279 reviews on a secure platform which could only be used by verified patients of the service. Of these, 274 people (98%) gave the service five stars out of five. The lowest score given was four stars out of five. The service employed an external consultant to randomly observe consultations (with the patient’s permission) to ensure that customer service was of a high standard. The consultant also completed an independent satisfaction survey with patients and found 100% of patients surveyed said they were treated with courtesy and respect and felt listened to.

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