Everything Skin Clinic

Updated 7 January 2022

Dr Vishal Madan is the nominated individual, registered manager and clinical director of Everything Skin Clinic. He is a consultant dermatologist and Mohs surgeon (Mohs micrographic surgery is the most advanced technique for removal of skin cancers offering the highest cure rate for the most common skin cancer types, including basal and squamous cell carcinomas) and president of the British Medical Laser Association. Dr Madan is on the General Medical Council (GMC) Specialist Register and specialises in general dermatology.

The clinic has a fully equipped theatre with two Mohs surgery rooms and a Mohs laboratory, a tattoo removal room, a mole mapping room, a treatment room, two consulting rooms, a reception and waiting area and office space.

The service is located at Suite B, Haw Bank House, Cheadle, Greater Manchester, SK8 1AL.

The clinic team consists of seven consultants, a registered nurse, a practice manager, two patient advisors, three healthcare assistants and a laser practitioner.

The clinic’s opening hours are as follows:

Monday: 09:00 – 20:00

Tuesday: 10:00 – 20:00

Wednesday: 10:00 – 20:00

Thursday: 09:00 – 19:00

Friday: 10:00 – 16:00

Saturday: 10:00 – 16:00 (Alternate Saturdays)

Sunday: CLOSED

The clinic offers a paediatric clinic on the first Thursday of every month, where the only patients on site are under 16 years of age, with a view to creating a more comfortable atmosphere for young patients.

The service is registered with CQC to undertake the following regulated activities:

• Treatment of Disease, Disorder or Injury.
• Diagnostic and Screening Services.
• Surgical Procedures.

How we inspected this service

We carried out this comprehensive 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.

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result if the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently. This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Requesting a provider information return and additional evidence from the provider prior to the site visit.
• Conducting staff interviews remotely using telephone calls.
• A shorter site visit to enable us to undertake a tour of the premises, interview the provider, review clinical records and other documents relating to the service.
• Further communications for clarification.

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 7 January 2022

This service is rated as Good overall.

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 Everything Skin Clinic as part of our inspection programme. This was the first CQC inspection for this location.

Everything Skin Clinic is a private clinic that offers outpatient services for adults and children over three years. The service specialises in skin treatments including medical, surgical, aesthetic and laser. Treatments include tattoo removal, laser hair removal, laser cancer surgery and mole mapping. Not all services delivered are within the scope of CQC regulated activities, we only inspected those that were relevant. The service is part of a wider group of services located throughout England offering private and NHS funded treatments at nine locations.

Dr Vishal Madan 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.

Comment cards were not distributed to the provider prior to the inspection in order to minimise the risks associated with the COVID -19 pandemic.

Our key findings were:

• The service was offered on a private, fee paying basis only and was accessible to patients who chose to use it.
• The service had systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen.
• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided.
• The service ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines and current best practice.
• Medical records were well maintained and mostly comprehensive.
• The service involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients could access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs. Patients fed back that access to the service was good apart from some delays answering the telephone.
• There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement, some audits were in the process of being fully developed.
• Information about services and how to complain was available. We found the systems and processes to manage and investigate complaints were in place.
• The service proactively sought feedback from patients.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review recruitment processes to include all documentation and checks are maintained.
• Continue to develop a more comprehensive audit regime.
• Review the process for exchange of patient information with their own GP.

We found the following areas which we viewed as outstanding:

• The provider had undertaken some clinical research into the effect of laser plumes and the associated infection risk relating to Covid 19. The research and conclusions formed part of national advice for all laser treatments authored by the provider’s clinical director.
• The provision to all patients of a 24-hour contact number for access to clinical staff for advice and reassurance following treatment.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care