Archived: Mydentist - Willow Street - Oswestry

Updated 22 April 2016

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 11 March 2016 and was led by a CQC inspector who had access to remote advice from a dental specialist advisor Prior to the inspection, we asked the practice to send us some information that we reviewed. This included the complaints they had received in the last 12 months, their latest statement of purpose, and the details of their staff members and proof of registration with their professional bodies.

We informed NHS England area team that we were inspecting the practice; however, we did not receive any information of concern from them.

During the inspection, we spoke with the practice manager, dentists, reception staff and reviewed policies, procedures and other documents. We reviewed eight comment cards that we had left prior to the inspection, for patients to complete, about the services provided at the practice.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?

• Is it effective?

• Is it caring?

• Is it responsive to people’s needs?

• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 22 April 2016

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 11 March 2016 to ask the practice the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this practice was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services effective?

We found that this practice was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services caring?

We found that this practice was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services responsive?

We found that this practice was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services well-led?

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

Background

Oswestry Dental Centre, part of a national corporate dental body, is a mixed dental practice providing mainly NHS and some private treatment for both adults and children. The practice is situated in a converted commercial property. The practice had four dental treatment rooms and a separate decontamination room for cleaning, sterilising and packing dental instruments. The dental treatment rooms are all situated on the ground floor.

The practice is open 9:00am to 5:30pm Monday to Friday. The practice has three dentists who are supported by four dental nurses and two receptionists.

The practice manager is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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.

Before the inspection we sent Care Quality Commission (CQC) comment cards to the practice for patients to complete to tell us about their experience of the practice. We received feedback from patients. These provided a completely positive view of the services the practice provides. Patients commented that the quality of care was very good and staff were helpful and understanding.

Our key findings were:

• The practice was in a transitional phase following a succession of several practice managers in recent times.
• We found the new practice manager to be hard working, committed and determined to provide effective managerial leadership to the practice.
• Staff had been trained to handle emergencies and appropriate medicines and life-saving equipment was readily available in accordance with current guidelines.
• The practice was visibly clean and well maintained.
• Infection control procedures were robust and the practice followed published guidance.
• The practice had a dedicated safeguarding lead with effective safeguarding processes in place for safeguarding adults and children living in vulnerable circumstances.
• The service was aware of the needs of the local population and took those these into account in how the practice was run.
• Patients could access treatment and urgent and emergency care when required.
• A process was in place to report incidents and for shared learning.
• On the day of our visit there were enough staff to support the dentists during patient treatment. However some staff did reveal that at times the practice was short staffed for both dental nurses and dentists with staff borrowed from a sister to practice to cover shortfalls.
• Staff recruitment files were well organised and complete.
• Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and were supported in their continued professional development (CPD).
• Information from eight completed Care Quality Commission (CQC) comment cards this gave us a positive picture of a friendly, professional service.
• The practice had a rolling programme of clinical and non-clinical audit in place.