Almost half of all slimming clinics offer unsafe care, with some giving slimmers drugs that could endanger their health, a report has warned.
Some prescribed appetite suppressants to patients who should not have used them because they were either not overweight enough or were already on drugs to lower their blood pressure.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the health inspectorate for England, also voiced unease that too many private GPs wrongly prescribe painkillers and antibiotics, or unlicensed drugs.
Its findings, based on inspections in 2017-18, raise questions about safety standards in the independent healthcare sector, which also includes clinics offering travel, allergy and circumcision services.
CQC inspectors deemed care was unsafe at 16 of the 38 slimming clinics and 32 of 66 private doctor services they visited.
The report revealed: “Almost a quarter of slimming clinics (nine of 38 inspection reports analysed) were not meeting the regulations for effective care, with some found to be treating people with medicines not recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) or the Royal College of Physicians.
“Inspectors found examples of appetite suppressants being prescribed to patients with a BMI [body mass index] lower than that recommended, or to patients with high blood pressure.”
Some clinics prescribed and supplied slimmers with “medicines that were neither clinically or cost-effective”, it added.
While some slimming clinics heeded CQC advice and made improvements, others did not. The regulator withdrew the operating licence of one clinic which, when it was reinspected, was found not to have addressed concerns raised on the first visit.
It also voiced alarm at dubious and potentially risky practices involving the prescription of drugs by some private doctors. However, it pointed out that some patients ended up receiving drugs that could prove dangerous because they did not disclose at a private medical appointment that they had already sought, or were already receiving, NHS care for a problem.
“This has implications for the safety of prescribing, specifically of high-risk medicines including opioid painkillers and antibiotics,” the report said.
“Some patients may choose to use a private service having been refused a prescription from an NHS GP as it was considered inappropriate or unsafe.” That can lead to antibiotic resistance, added the CQC, which said it had similar concerns about private doctors prescribing painkillers in ignorance of the fact that a patient was already receiving other treatment.
It also highlighted another problem, saying: “We had concerns regarding prescribing medicines without a strong evidence base and prescribing unlicensed medicines. At a number of the services inspected, the prescriber had failed to inform patients that the medicine was unlicensed.”
While some for-profit service providers offered excellent care, “too often we saw poor prescribing practice and providers with a limited awareness of their responsibilities, not just to their patients but to the wider healthcare system”, said Ursula Gallagher, the watchdog’s deputy chief inspector of general practice and lead for independent providers.
She reminded independent providers that they had “a legal responsibility to offer safe, high-quality care that not only meets the needs of the people using it, but also meets the legal requirements that exist to protect patients.”
