skin Watford

Updated 9 February 2022

Sk:n - Watford is operated by Lasercare Clinics (Harrogate) Limited, 34 Harborne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3AA and provides services from 34 The Avenue, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD17 4NS. The provider has over 50 clinics registered with the CQC in England. A link to the clinic’s website is below:

https://www.sknclinics.co.uk/clinics/the-south/watford

This clinic first registered with the CQC on 20 October 2020 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 in a residential area with a few small private businesses and healthcare services nearby. There is onsite parking plus street parking outside the location.

Sk:n – Watford shares a location with THMG Watford Clinic (which is run by the same provider) and whilst some facilities are shared there are some rooms used exclusively by this service. On the ground floor there is one treatment room which is used for non-regulated activities, and a shared reception/waiting area, admin office, and staff kitchen. On the first floor there are four treatment rooms (one of which is used for regulated activities), and a shared admin room and mixed-use toilets.

The service opening times are Monday 12pm to 8pm, Tuesday 10am to 8pm, Wednesday 11am to 8pm, Thursday 10am to 8pm, Friday 10am to 7pm, and Saturday 9am to 5pm. The provider’s call centre operates seven days a week.

How we inspected this service

Before the inspection, we asked the provider to send us some information, which was reviewed prior to the inspection day. We also reviewed information held by the CQC on our internal systems.

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 9 February 2022

This service is rated as Good overall.

This service was registered by the CQC on 20 October 2020 and this is the first time that it has been inspected and rated.

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 Sk:n – Watford, 34 The Avenue, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD17 4NS on 16 December 2021 as part of our inspection programme.

Sk:n - Watford is registered under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities:

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

This service provides independent cosmetic services, offering a mix of regulated skin treatments as well as other non-regulated aesthetic treatments. There are some exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of regulated activities and services and these are set out in and of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. We only inspected and reported on the services which are within the scope of registration with the CQC.

The clinic manager is the registered manager and there is another registered manager who visits the clinic several times per month and is always available for advice or support if needed. 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.

Due to the current pandemic we were unable to obtain comments from patients via our normal process of asking the provider to place comment cards within the service location. However, we saw from internal surveys and reviews on social media that patients 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 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 to learn from incidents.
• There were regular reviews of the effectiveness of treatments, 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.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care