We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 25 January 2017 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive to people’s needs?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Background

We carried out this inspection 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.

CQC inspected the service on 28 July 2015 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding the management of medicines. This was because the provider had not complied with the labelling requirements for dispensed medicines as required under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 (schedule 23) and staff had access to schedule 3 controlled drugs that they were not legally authorised to (Regulation 12 (2) (g). We checked these areas as part of this comprehensive inspection and found this had been resolved.

Albany Medical Centre is a slimming clinic located in Sidcup, South East London. The clinic consists of a reception and two consulting rooms which are located on the ground floor of 2 Alma Road, which is just off Station Road. It is close to the main bus stops, the train station and there is on street parking. The building is wheelchair accessible.

The clinic was staffed by a clinic manager, two male doctors, and 2 female clinic assistants who also acted as receptionists. One of the doctors regularly worked at the sister clinic in Harlow, Essex. There was also an operational manager based at the sister clinic in Harlow who spent a considerable amount of time at Albany Medical Centre. The two clinics were run as one entity, and this ensured that practice was aligned.

The clinic manager was 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 Regulations about how the clinic is run.

The clinic provides slimming advice and prescribed medicines to support weight reduction. It is a private service. It was open for booked appointments on Tuesdays and Fridays 10:30am to 7pm and Saturdays 10.30am to 1pm. Patients could walk in on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to book clinic appointments. Patients could also be weighed and have their blood pressure readings taken, but could not be supplied medicines at these times as the doctors were not available.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of the provision of advice or treatment by, or under the supervision of, a medical practitioner, including the prescribing of medicines for the purposes of weight reduction. At Albany Medical Centre, the cosmetic injections and laser hair removal treatments that are also provided are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore we were only able to inspect the treatment for weight reduction but not the cosmetic services.

Patients completed CQC comment cards to tell us what they thought about the service. We received 23 completed cards and all were positive. Patients said that all the staff were friendly, helpful and very efficient with regards to helping them book appointments. They also said that the environment was clean and commented that they were always provided with information when this was requested.

Our key findings were:

• Staff told us that they felt supported to carry out their roles and responsibilities.
• We found that feedback from patients was always positive about the care they received, the helpfulness of staff and the cleanliness of the premises.
• The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service being provided.

Action the provider SHOULD take to improve:

• The provider should only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available.
• The provider should review arrangements in place to signpost the availability of a chaperone.
• The provider should review how the calibration of weighing scales is documented.
• The provider should review how people can make a complaint.
• The provider should ensure that the information provided in relation to the use of off license medicines is easily understandable to people using the service.

We carried out an unannounced inspection at Albany Medical Centre on 28 July 2015. This inspection was in response to information we had received and to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in relation to the safe handling of medicines in the service.

The centre provides slimming advice and prescribed medicines to support weight reduction. It is open Tuesdays and Friday 10:30am to 7pm and Saturdays 10am to 1pm.

Mrs Linda Brookes 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 practice/service is run.

Our key findings in the areas we inspected were as follows:

• People were given health checks, including calculating their BMI when they first attended the clinic. People were only treated if their BMI was in the acceptable higher range.

• Medicines were stored securely

We identified regulations that were not being met and the provider must ensure:

• Medicines must only be available to the doctor and must not be handed to patients when the doctor is not present or transported by members of staff.

• Medicines labels must include the person’s name and the date they were dispensed.

We found that this practice was not providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

You can see full details of the regulations not being met at the end of this report.