We carried out an announced follow up inspection on 28 February 2019 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

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

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was not providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations

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 06 March 2018 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding how they safeguarded service users and how they demonstrated good governance. We checked these areas as part of this follow up inspection and found that some areas remained unresolved.

Slimmingmedics Reading provides weight loss services, including prescribed medicines and dietary advice to support weight reduction. The clinic is located on the first floor of a shared building in the town centre. The clinic consists of one room which includes a reception and waiting area and a consulting area. The clinic is open for part days, three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

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 Slimmingmedics Reading the aesthetic cosmetic 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 aesthetic cosmetic services.

The Clinic Manager 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.

Our key findings were:

• The provider lacked systems to monitor the quality of care delivered.
• The provider lacked systems to check that staff delivering the service had the appropriate safeguarding training in place
• The layout of the clinic premises meant that patients’ confidentiality was not protected

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

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care
• Ensure that patient confidentiality is protected

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

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

• Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care