Archived: Diamond Skin Care Limited

Updated 22 February 2023

• The name of the registered provider is Diamond Skin Care Science Limited. The registered address of the provider is 129 School Lane Little Melton Norwich Norfolk NR9 3LB.
• The provider has two registered clinic locations. One is based at Abbey Field Medical Centre, Ypres Road, Colchester, CO2 7UW. The second location at 25-27 Dr Torren’s Way, Norwich, Costessey, NR5 0GB. We visited the Colchester location for this inspection.
• The provider first registered the Colchester location with CQC in 2021 and is registered to provide services to children and adults. The services offered include those that fall under registration, such as mole and cyst removal, medical acne treatment, and Botox injections for the treatment of excessive sweating. Other procedures, which do not fall under the scope of registration include for example, non-surgical wart and verruca removal.
• The Colchester location is located within a purpose-built GP practice on the outskirts of Colchester. Diamond Skin Care Limited used one room within the Abbey Field Medical Centre premises on Monday and Tuesday each week. There is free parking at the centre.
• The service is accessed through booking a free advice call or appointment online on the service website. Patients could also book an appointment by telephone available Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm or complete an online request for a call back within 24 hours (Monday to Friday) and there was a live chat on their website.
• The provider’s website is www.diamondskincare.co.uk

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.

During the inspection we spoke with staff present including the Registered Manager and clinical staff. We made observations of the facilities and service provision and reviewed documents, records and information held by the service. We also reviewed feedback left by patients on the Diamond Skin Care Limited website and online.

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 22 February 2023

This service is rated as Requires improvement overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Diamond Skin Care Limited on 12 December 2022, as part of our inspection programme. Diamond Skin Care Limited 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 a full range of independent dermatology services, offering a mix of regulated skin treatments and 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 Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Therefore, we only inspected and reported on the services which are within the scope of registration with the CQC.

The Director of Diamond Skin Care Limited 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 had not carried out risk assessments to understand the service need for emergency medicine and equipment provision. The provider could not provide assurance that emergency medicines and equipment were checked to ensure they were suitable for the service or fit for purpose.
• The provider had systems to keep clinicians up to date with current evidence-based guidance.
• Staff treated patients with compassion, respect and kindness and comments left by patients said they were involved in decisions about their care. We found reviews on the Diamond Skin Care Limited website and online, which showed that patients were consistently positive about the service, and described staff as professional, helpful and caring. We were also shown positive feedback from patients collected by the provider.
• The service encouraged feedback from patients which was positive and included timely access to the service.
• There was an absence of understanding or arrangements to manage risks by the provider. There was a lack of assessment systems or assurance that safe, and well-led services were effective for example, environmental checks, and oversight of infection prevention and control.

The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulations are:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Identify and document the organisational lead within policies for infection prevention and control and safeguarding for children and vulnerable adults.
• Audit prescribing for assurance safe prescribing guidelines were followed
• Improve the accessibility of information for patients about the complaints process.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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