Archived: Harmony Medical Diet Clinic in Coventry

Updated 4 December 2017

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Harmony Medical Diet Clinic on 4 October 2017. The team was led by a member of the CQC medicines team and included another member of the CQC medicines team.

Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information that we hold about the service which included information from the provider.

The methods that were used were talking to patients using the service, interviewing staff, observation and review of documents.

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 patients’ needs?

• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 4 December 2017

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 4 October 2017 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Background

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.

The clinic provided slimming advice and prescribed medicines to support weight reduction. It was a private service. The service operates from a third floor consulting room in an office block in Coventry town centre. It is open from 10am to 4pm on Wednesdays. The clinic was run by one doctor, there were no support staff. The registered manager was a doctor but did not work regularly within the business. 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 a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run. The provider runs two further clinics in Coventry and London. The registered manager provides supervision and support to the doctor who provides the service.

We collected feedback about the service from 11 patients through CQC comment cards and speaking to patients during the inspection. Patients said they received good advice, the doctor was knowledgeable and professional and they felt supported to lose weight.

Our key findings were:

• Patients were provided with a range of information on diet, exercise and any medicines that were prescribed.
• Feedback from patients was very positive about the care they received.
• The service was flexible to fit in with patient choice
• The doctor was knowledgeable about strategies to improve weight loss and had produced information for patients to support healthy diets.
• The doctor had systems in place to monitor the clinical efficacy of the service provided.

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

• Review and risk assess the appropriateness of having a family member of the patient as a translator.
• Review the necessity for chaperoning at the service and consider how this may be provided within this service.
• Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available.