SHINING LIGHT

Consultant editor Vicky Eldridge visits Dr Sophie Shotter’s new clinic in Kings Hill, Kent.

To say it has been a busy few months for Dr Sophie Shotter would be an understatement. Having just been announced as the Skin Aesthetic Expert forThe Melanoma Fund and launched her own CPD-accredited complications course for NHS staff, Dr Shotter is not one to sit around twiddling her thumbs. And she’s done all of the above on the back of opening a new state-of-the-art clinic in Kent.

Dr Shotter originally set up Illuminate Skin Clinic in 2014 in Kings Hill, West Malling. The practice has since won multiple awards, and, despite the challenges of the pandemic, the clinic was thriving.

This meant Dr Shotter and her team had started to outgrow the old space and needed something that could be, as she describes, their “forever home”.

Moving just across the road, the new 3,391 sq ft space is significantly larger and gave Dr Shotter a chance to incorporate new ideas to enhance the patient journey.

“We are well-established in Kings Hill, and it’s a great place for our business to be based”, Dr Shotter says. “Not only is there a lovely population of local people, but it’s also easily accessible by road and public transport, so excellent for our patients who travel from further afield.

“Our new premises give us much more room to offer new treatments and additional availability to our clients.

“It’s 3,400 square feet. So it’s a bit more than we need at the moment, but that gives us space to grow. We are using the space imaginatively to give our patients a premium experience and create an exciting workplace for our staff.”

Having visited Dr Shotter’s smaller former premises, I was excited to see the bigger, newly developed space, and it did not disappoint. The clinic really has the “wow” factor and makes you feel at home from the minute you walk into the expansive reception area and are greeted by Dr Shotter’s team sitting behind a beautiful wooden curved reception desk.

The waiting area itself is set back discreetly behind the reception desk and uber modern, with cosy little pods reminiscent ofa swanky spa hotel, complete with charging portals for patients to relax in private while they await treatment.

On the opposite side of the entrance is a glass-encapsulated board room which Dr Shotter uses for team meetings and training.

Moving deeper into the clinic, you will find a relaxation room complete with a massage chair designed for patients to sit and chill out while local anaesthetic cream takes effect. The darkened room has a mesmerising galaxy projector, creating an ambient and relaxing effect and, having sat in there for half an hour, I went straight onto Amazon on the way home and bought one for myself.

Dr Shotter’s own clinic room is expansive and features, as do the treatment rooms, a sky effect on the ceiling, creating a zen-like space and bringing nature inside.

Bold, eye-catching artworks from both local artist Sarah Hamilton and Dorset-based artist Felice Hodges adorn the walls, and the whole space feels chic and reflective of Dr Shotter herself.

A laser room, four other identical treatment rooms, a staff room, a photography room with standardised light and an admin office are also included in the space and have allowed Dr Shotter to grow her team to 15 members.

“I wanted a space to come to on my admin days. I can work from home, but sometimes it’s also nice to come in and have meetings. In the old place, I’d often come in, and there would be someone at my desk in my room because we didn’t have enough space.”

Dr Shotter had been looking for the right premises for a long time before the unit on Kings Hill Avenue came up. She says, “We’d been looking for a long time. Pre-COVID, we looked at a different space, but we had to put things on pause because we weren’t really sure what was happening.

“And then last spring, we were like, right, this needs to happen. We’re bursting at the seams. Patients were feeling it. We were feeling it. Ultimately it wasn’t a nice experience for the staff being that cramped.”

It took a long time to get the finished clinic over the line because it was a blank canvas, but Dr Shotter is really proud of the final result. “There was a lot to be done”, she says. “What we were trying to think about was the experience we give our patients. When we were quieter at the old clinic, we were able to create a really nice experience. But when we grew within that space, at times, we felt we were sacrificing that. Here, the idea was to elevate our patients’ experience from start to finish. This building was a blank canvas, so we had to create the space ourselves, but now it’s done, and we have our forever home.”