Director of Burnley health clinic defends her business after it is hit with two warnings and rated 'inadequate' by watchdog

Gill Montero Garcia who is the director of Discover Laser, based in Royle Lane, said she believed the business had been 'incorrectly assessed' and told the Burnley Express: "‘Some recommendations for strengthening our specialist clinical services have been received by the CQC.

"Most of the recommendations, we believe, arise from the CQC incorrectly assessing us an ‘acute hospital’, such as Burnley General and Royal Blackburn, when we are in fact (using their terminology) an ‘independent clinic’ offering only out-patient type of treatments.

‘The difference between a large acute hospital and a small out-patient clinic like ours is obvious and the criteria for making judgements is very different in some areas.

“We, like many others, have faced challenges during the recent pandemic where we have been closed for almost 10 months.. We have been given advice from many organisations, including CQC, when risk assessing our priorities.

"We believe that some of the decisions we were encouraged to make have affected the outcomes of the recent visit."

A spokesman for the CQC said that while Discover Laser was allocated to a different inspection directorate this did not have any impact on its overall assessment and outcome as both frameworks were used when compiling the report.

The CGC rated Discover Laser 'inadequate' overall in aspects of being safe, effective, and well-led. And while it was rated 'requires improvement' for being responsive to people’s needs it was rated 'good' for being caring.

The inspection was carried out as part of CQC’s checks on the safety and quality of healthcare services. Due to concerns found, the service was issued two warning notices requiring them to make significant improvements relating to safe care and treatment and systems and processes.

An independent health clinic, Discover Laser is registered to provide diagnostic and screening procedures, services in slimming clinics, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The clinic also provides a range of other aesthetic services which are not regulated.

READ MORE: Weavers' Triangle visitors' centre in Burnley set to reopensue

Karen Knapton, CQC’s head of hospital inspection, said: “We found leaders didn’t always have the capacity, skills and abilities to run the service well or understand and manage the priorities and issues the service faced. Also, staff didn’t consistently have the required level of training, and we were concerned that the demand for the service was expanding quickly, without enough suitably trained staff to support it.

“Patients weren’t receiving the safe care and treatment they deserve. Staff weren’t appropriately assessing or managing risks to people and they didn’t always complete and update risk assessments which could put people at risk of harm.

“We also found incidents were sometimes not reported, and the service didn’t always safely record and store medicines and emergency equipment wasn’t being checked safely. Care and treatment guidance and policies weren’t always up to date, and they didn’t meet cosmetic surgery standards which could put people at risk.

“We found that staff treated patients with compassion, kindness and were focused on providing good care to meet their needs, respected their privacy and dignity and supported them to understand and make decisions about their treatment.”