We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 9 August 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

Beanhill dental practice is a general dental practice in the Beanhill area of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.

The practice offers general dental treatment to adults and children on the NHS or funded privately. The premises are situated in a parade of commercial units including a medical centre. The practice has ground floor and ramp access to the treatment rooms and is wheelchair accessible.

The practice is open from 8.30 am to 7 pm on a Monday. 8.30 am to 5.30 pm Tuesday to Friday. Emergency patients can usually be seen on the day they contact the practice, a new patients can usually get an appointment within a week.

The practice manager is applying to be 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.

We received 28 comments from patients who attend the practice through comments cards which were provided to the practice two weeks prior to our visit. These were wholly positive about the service provided by the practice.

Our key findings were

• The practice was visibly clean and clutter free.

• Patients reported that staff were friendly and kind. Their options were explained to them fully.

• The practice had emergency medicines and equipment in line with national guidelines.

• Infection control standards met national guidance.

• The clinicians used nationally recognised guidelines in the care and treatment of patients.

• A new patient appointment could usually be secured within a week, and the practice endeavoured to see emergency patients on the day they contacted the service.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Review the practice’s protocols for the use of rubber dam for root canal treatment giving due regard to guidelines issued by the British Endodontic Society.

• Review the protocols and procedures to ensure staff are up to date with their mandatory training and their Continuing Professional Development.

• Review its audit protocols to document learning points that are shared with all relevant staff and ensure that the resulting improvements can be demonstrated as part of the audit process.

People told us that this was a very good practice. One person said. "The practice is well run, well organised and it is easy to get an appointment". Another person said. "The dentist has a nice manner this helped me not to feel nervous when I was treated".

We saw that the practice was clean and well organised and that all the staff treated people with respect.