The Mole Clinic

Updated 24 August 2022

The Mole Clinic, established in 2003, is an independent clinic in central London.

Services are provided from: The Mole Clinic, 9 Argyll Street, London W1F 7TG. We visited this location as part of the inspection on 15 June 2022. Patient facilities are provided on the second floor of the building.

The service also provides nurse-led skin cancer screening sessions at two satellite locations based in London Bridge and Cambridge. We did not inspect either satellite location.

The service also operates from two separately registered locations at Moorgate and Harley Street in London.

The service provides skin cancer screening, diagnosis and skin lesion and mole removal. The service is the largest independent skin cancer clinic in the UK and sees approximately 14,000 patients a year.

The service was open to adults only.

Online services can be accessed from the practice website: www.themoleclinic.co.uk.

The clinic is open from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday and from 9am to 4pm on Saturday.

The Mole Clinic clinical team consists of 12 nurses, two health care assistants and six surgical consultants, specialising in dermatology, with practicing privileges (the granting of practising privileges is a well-established process within independent healthcare whereby a medical practitioner is granted permission to work in an independent hospital or clinic, in independent private practice, or within the provision of community services). Skin lesion diagnosis using digital images is provided remotely by five GPs with a specialist interest in dermatology (a branch of medicine dealing with the skin, its structure, functions, and diseases). The clinical team is supported by a clinic manager, assistant clinic manager and a small team of administrative staff.

The service is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activity of treatment of disease, disorder or injury, diagnostics and screening and surgical procedures.

How we inspected this service

Pre-inspection information was gathered and reviewed before the inspection. We spoke with a range of clinical and non-clinical staff. We looked at records related to patient assessments and the provision of care and treatment. We also reviewed documentation related to the management of the service. We reviewed patient feedback collected by the service.

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 24 August 2022

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection: 14 June 2018 - Unrated).

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 The Mole Clinic as part of our inspection programme.

The service provides skin cancer screening, diagnosis and skin lesion and mole removal. All tissue samples were sent to a local laboratory for analysis.

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.

For reasons of safety and infection prevention and control related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not commission patient feedback with CQC comment cards. We did not speak to any patients during this inspection.

Our key findings were:

• There were clear systems and processes to safeguard patients from abuse. All staff had received training appropriate to their role.
• There was evidence of quality improvement activity.
• Consultations were comprehensive and undertaken in a professional manner.
• Consent procedures were in place and these were in line with legal requirements.
• There was an infection prevention and control policy and procedures were in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection.
• Staff members were knowledgeable and had the experience and skills required to carry out their roles.
• Clinical records were detailed and held securely. The service did not keep paper records. The clinical system used by the clinic enabled diagnostic imaging to be shared quickly with specialist doctors.
• The clinic held regular clinical management meetings and multi-disciplinary team meetings. Minutes were available to all staff via the clinic intranet.
• The service had systems to manage and learn from complaints or significant events. These were shared with the wider organisation and analysed for trends.
• Patients were able to book appointments online and by telephone. The service monitored the availability of appointments to ensure urgent referrals were seen in a timely manner.
• Patients were asked for feedback following each appointment. This feedback was logged, analysed and shared with staff via the clinic intranet.
• All staff were aware of the clinic’s values and were passionate about providing high level care. We saw that staff were committed to raising awareness of skin cancers and sun safety.
• The clinic had developed a training course for skin cancer screening that was undertaken by all the nursing staff. This was the only course of this nature that had been accredited by the Royal College of Nursing.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Carry out regular prescribing audits.
• Review a legionella risk assessment and carry out regular water temperature checks.
• Implement a formal process to review and monitor the performance of consultants.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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