Diamond Skin Care is the winner of the SME Southern Enterprise Award. The below article is published in SME News Southern Enterprise Awards 2023 Issue.
Diamond Skin Care dermatology clinic diagnoses and treats medical skin conditions including skin cancer, severe eczema, acne, and hair loss. The company, founded by Dr Deepak Rallan in 2013, offers diagnosis and treatment in a fraction of the time of conventional services. With appointments available within a few days and treatment started immediately or within days of initial contact, Diamond Skin Care puts patients’ minds at ease – quickly. We take a look at the company in more detail.
There’s little worse than knowing you need medical care and being unable to access it in a timely fashion. Dr Deepak Rallan worked in hospital dermatology departments for over 15 years. During that time he became dissatisfied with the quality of care, and frustrated by the lack of time available to train junior staff. Dr Rallan decided something had to change.
He tells us, “My vision was to create an enterprise that would listen at every level to the needs and wants of the patients and commit to developing the people who provide the service. There are over 200 known dermatological conditions which necessitate significant expertise in diagnostic methods and treatment plans. While many skin businesses offer aesthetic or cosmetic services, very few operate on the medical side. At Diamond Skin Care, we’ve designed our model to be accessible to as many people as possible.”
With clinics in Norwich and Colchester, Diamond Skin Care welcomes many patients who were unable to access the correct diagnosis or treatment via a conventional route. As a direct result of this, the company has also begun to offer short dermatology courses to professionals in the wider medical community.
Dr Rallan says, “In 2021, we became the first institute in the UK to run a mentorship course in advanced skin cancer recognition. With two centres currently, our vision is to establish more centres across the UK. Our unique philosophy of staff and patient care has the potential to carry us to achieving this vision and beyond.”
Diamond Skin Care’s core values, which have remained the same for over a decade, are science, skill, and service. The company’s mission statement expands on the theme: “to continuously design and create the most innovative dermatology services that will connect the best technologies, treatments, and experts with patients in fast and efficient ways, so that a skin cancer or skin condition never becomes a cause for embarrassment, withdrawal, or worry”.
By continuing to police and perfect its systems, Diamond Skin Care offers a level of service that few are able to match. Dr Rallan explains, “We discovered early on that staying ahead of the curve is possible only if we have an intimate knowledge of our market. And even that is not enough. It’s so important to respect the market. Every single individual in one’s market deserves respect and dignity for their choices.”
Healthcare is a serious business, but for Dr Rallan and the team, there’s an importance on having fun too. He shares, “To borrow some wisdom from Sir Richard Branson, ‘it’s only worth doing if there is a lot of fun involved’. I’m the luckiest founder to have the team we do. At the moment we have 13 team members, and we’re welcoming two or three new members each year. Every individual buys into our vision of passion and performance and that’s such a blessing. Our internal culture is one of performance and growth while having fun. We like to set goals and targets then break targets and then set bigger goals.”
Looking to the future, Diamond Skin Care is aiming to quadruple its current number of clinics.The company also plans to bring on board four new directors in the areas of operations, marketing, nursing, and medical to oversee the quality of service across the business. Following the success of its Dermoscopy course for the diagnosis of skin cancer, Diamond Skin Care will also be looking to roll out this programme on a national and international scale.
