Healthcare Improvement Scotland is a public body. Our purpose is to enable the people of Scotland to experience the best quality of health and social care, across the NHS in Scotland and social care services.
As well as private clinics we are also responsible for regulating independent hospitals, hospices, and private psychiatric hospitals.
The vast majority of private clinics regulated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland provide cosmetic procedures such as anti-wrinkle injections, dermal fillers and weight loss therapy.
The registration process for private clinics is thorough, and there are strict requirements which services must meet in order to become registered. When a clinic is registered with Healthcare Improvement Scotland it is then subject to regular inspection. Services are assessed against a range of quality indicators and we gather feedback from patients. All registered clinics must demonstrate that they are maintaining high standards of care at all times.
A report grading aspects of the service, is published on our website following each inspection. We then grade each clinic as exceptional, good, satisfactory or unsatisfactory.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland can take enforcement action where services present a serious risk to the safety and wellbeing of patients. We can refuse registration of a private clinic, meaning that it is unable to operate legally.
Any service continuing to operate when not registered can be reported to the Procurator Fiscal.
