We carried out a review of the data available to us about Harmony Medical Diet Clinic in Wood Green on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Harmony Medical Diet Clinic in Wood Green, you can give feedback on this service.
This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection November 2019 – Requires improvement)
We carried out an announced focused inspection at Harmony Medical Diet Clinic in Wood Green to follow up on breaches of regulations.
The key questions at this inspection are rated as:
Are services safe? – Good
Are services effective? – Good
Are services well-led? – Good
We did not inspect caring and responsive services because our monitoring did not indicate a change since the last inspection. The ratings from the last inspection have been carried forward.
Are services caring? – Good
Are services responsive? – Good
CQC inspected the service on 12 November 2019 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding safe care and treatment and good governance. We checked these areas as part of this focused inspection and found they had been resolved.
Harmony Medical Diet Clinic provides weight loss services for adults, including the provision of medicines for the purposes of weight loss under the supervision of a doctor.
The doctor 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 areas where the provider should make improvements are:
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care
This service is rated as Requires improvement overall. The previous inspection in January 2017 was not rated.
The key questions are rated as:
Are services safe? – Inadequate
Are services effective? – Requires improvement
Are services caring? – Good
Are services responsive? – Good
Are services well-led? – Requires improvement
We carried out an announced comprehensive at Harmony Medical Diet Clinic in Wood Green as part of our inspection programme.
Harmony Medical Diet Clinic provides weight loss services for adults, including the provision of medicines for the purposes of weight loss under a doctor’s supervision.
The doctor 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.
11 people provided feedback about the service and their comments were all positive. They told us it was a friendly, effective service.
Our key findings were:
The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulations are:
(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care
We carried out a focused inspection on 23 January 2017 to ask the service the following key question: Is the service well-led?
Our findings:
We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 15/12/2015 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 not providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Background
Harmony Diet Clinic provides a weight reduction service and provides medication and dietary advice to the patients accessing the service. The service operates from a consultation room at the back of a high street Pharmacy in Wood Green, North London. The clinic runs on Mondays and Tuesday between 9.30am and 4.30pm, and offers a walk in service.
The clinic is run by one doctor who is supported by the registered manager who is also a doctor. 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. There are two other locations of this service that are also run by the same provider in Bedford and Coventry. The registered manager provides supervision and support to all practitioners working across the locations.
The patients that we spoke to on the day of the inspection said that they felt that the clinic offered an excellent service and staff were efficient, helpful and caring and treated them with dignity and respect.
We found that people were supplied with information about the medications the clinic was using and signed to consent to their use. The information noted that the medications were not recommended by NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) for the treatment and management of obesity.
We found that the doctor was treating people with a BMI (body mass index) over 23. NICE Guidance states that only patients with a BMI of over 28 should be treated, but there was evidence the doctor had consulted with the General Medical Council to discuss the rationale of treating a lower body mass index.