Ouronyx

Updated 18 January 2023

Ouronyx is an independent clinic in central London.

Services are provided from: 20 St. James's Street, London, SW1A 1ES. We visited this location as part of the inspection on 11 November 2022.

The service offers hair treatments which include micrografting (a type of hair regenerative minor surgical procedure used to help activate stem cells in hair follicles) by the doctor. In addition, the service offers medical botox for hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating).

The service is offering a range of aesthetic services which were out of the scope of this inspection.

The service was open to adults only.

Online services can be accessed from the practice website: www.ouronyx.com.

The clinic is open from 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday.

Ouronyx team consists of a doctor, two practitioners, a medical operations manager, a general manager, a PR manager, a business development manager, a finance director and a customer experience staff team.

The service is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activity of treatment of disease, disorder or injury 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 18 January 2023

This service is rated as Good 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? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Ouronyx on 11 November 2022 as part of our inspection programme.

The service offered hair treatments and medical botox for hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating).

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. 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. Ouronyx provides a range of non-surgical cosmetic interventions, for example, botox and fillers which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

The medical operations 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 spoke to two patients during this inspection and received positive feedback.

Our key findings were:

• Recruitment checks were not always carried out in accordance with regulations including Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks.
• Risks to patients were managed well in most areas, with the exception of issues related to some emergency medicines and the calibration of medical equipment.
• 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 held regular clinical governance meetings and minutes were maintained.
• The service had systems to manage and learn from incidents.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment in a timely manner.

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

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.
• Ensure recruitment procedures are established and operated effectively to ensure only fit and proper persons are employed.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Implement a formal process to peer review the performance of the doctor.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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