A PRIVATE clinic in Glasgow city centre has been rapped for putting patients at risk by prescribing them unlicensed weight-loss drugs.

Strathearn Health and Beauty on Bath Street was told to make urgent improvements after inspectors identified several concerns with the weight management service.

They included prescribing drugs to clients that had not been approved for use by medical regulators and  patients had not being made aware of the risks. 

The inspection report states that the medicines, “may not have been assessed for safety, quality and efficacy.” It adds: “National advisory groups do not recommend the use of these medicines.

“Patients were not told that these medicines were unlicensed – a requirement.”

The inspection by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) also found that patient records were “poorly completed” and some entries were not legible.

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Inspectors looked at five patient files and found “no documentation” of any dietary, physical or lifestyle advice given to patients.

The body mass index (BMI) was not always recorded when treatment started or at later appointments and target weights were not recorded.

The clinic provides a range of surgical and non-surgical aesthetic treatments including skin rejuvenation, hair regeneration, laser treatments and weight management programmes.

It was issued with five requirements including an “immediate” direction that patients must be told that the drugs are unlicensed and “not recommended for treatment of obesity.”

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A follow-up inspection, carried out in October, found that the clinic had updated its patient information leaflets to include information about the unlicensed status of medicines used and that they are not recommended for obesity.

The service has also improved record keeping with an electronic system for patients on the weight management programme with details recorded about BMI.

All five requirements issued by the HIS were met by the clinic.

The report concluded: “We saw that significant progress had been made in making sure that information about medications used in the clinic was accurate. The service’s new electronic record management system should help patient care records become more accurate, legible and include essential information in line with national.”