Archived: The Dentist

Updated 1 March 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the practice was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

The inspection took place on 20 October 2016 and was led by a dentally qualified CQC inspector.

During the inspection, we spoke with the practice manager/lead nurse and reviewed policies, procedures and other documents.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always asked the following question:

• Is it well-led?

This question therefore formed the framework for the area we looked at during this inspection.

Updated 1 March 2017

We carried out an announced focussed inspection on 20 October 2016 following a previous inspection in January 2016 where we found shortfalls in the governance arrangements for the practice. On 20 October 2016, we inspected the practice to ask the following key question; are services well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services well-led?

We found that this practice was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Background

Dhody’s Ltd provides private dental treatment mainly for adults. The practice is situated in a converted commercial property. The practice has one dental treatment room and a separate decontamination room used for cleaning, sterilising and packing dental instruments. Dental care is provided on the ground floor which also has a reception and waiting area. The practice is open 9.00am to 12.00pm and 4.00pm to 8:00pm Monday to Friday. The practice had one dentist who is supported by a trainee dental nurse/practice manager, a part time dental hygienist and a receptionist.

The practice owner is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the practice is run. The registered manager was supported in their role by a practice manager who is also training to be a dental nurse.

Our key findings were:

• All the requirements set out by the Care Quality Commission in relation to well-led key question at the previous practice inspection had been met.
• Since our last visit the provider had put into place more robust governance systems to underpin the clinical care provided.
• We found that an empowered practice manager oversaw the maintenance of these clinical governance systems.
• Monitoring systems and audit had been improved.
• The practice had appropriate medicines and life-saving equipment readily available in accordance with current guidelines.
• Infection prevention control methods followed the guidance set out in HTM 01 05 (national guidance for infection prevention control in dental practices’) in relation to meeting essential quality requirements.
• The practice environment was clean, tidy and clutter free.
• The control of Legionella was managed in accordance with national guidelines.
• Information provided to patients with respect to fees was clear and unambiguous and displayed clearly in the patient waiting area and on the practice website.
• The practice had introduced an additional in house system to capture patient feedback which supplemented the online and social media systems.