Hoxton penis enlargement and “designer vagina” breached cleanliness and infection control

Regency Clinic in Nile Street. Archant

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), also discovered not all staff were undergoing Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks and believed both breaches would have a major impact on service users at the Regency Clinic - which has since met standards after enforcement action was taken.

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Regency Clinic in Nile Street. Regency Clinic in Nile Street.

A clinic offering penis enlargements and “designer vaginas” was found to be breaching cleanliness and infection controls during an unannounced inspection.

The Regency Clinic in Nile Street, Hoxton, provides private doctor consultations, consultations and surgical procedures for male and female genital surgery, as well as infertility consultations and treatments.

When CQC inspectors visited its premises in February, a director was unable to reassure inspectors that surgical instruments were sterile and infection control procedures were safe.

The instruments were found in the store room stored in sealed packs, dated from between 2006 to 2013.

The assistant was confident the equipment had been sterilised, but the inspector said it was unclear if the dates on sealed packs storing the instruments related to the date of sterilisation or expiry and concluded it was not possible to differentiate, which could lead to cross-contamination.

Enforcement action was also taken with regards to the clinic’s recruitment procedure which inspectors ruled was not safe or effective because Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks were not being completed for all staff.

“CRB checks could highlight risks that staff members might pose to patients due to previous history,” said the inspector’s report.

“Therefore a failure to conduct these checks meant that the service was not making the safest recruitment decisions.”

The CQC judged that both breaches could have a major impact on patients.

However the clinic was meeting four of six outcome areas, including care and welfare of service users, safety and suitability of premises and notice of absence.

Although the management of medicines standard was being met, inspectors found expired medicines on the premises, which were removed by the second day of the inspectors’ visit once the breach was pointed out to staff.

“This reflected poor medicines management that could increase risks to patient health,” said the inspector.

One patient praised staff at the clinic, telling the CQC that the doctor was very professional and caring, “explained everything extremely well” and was “very thorough.” The Regency clinic was told to report back to the CQC within a month, and a report published in June following a further inspection found the clinic was compliant in all six areas.

The Gazette tried unsuccessfully to contact the Regency Clinic for comment.