We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 16 June 2015 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.

Dentael is located in Middlesex and provides private dental services to all age groups. The practice opened and started treating patients in January 2014.

The practice team included the provider, two trainee dental nurses and two locum dental nurses.

We reviewed 13 Care Quality Commission (CQC) comment cards completed by patients who were very positive about the care they received from the practice. They commented that staff were caring, respectful and helpful.

The provider 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.

Our key findings were:

• The practice had systems in place to help ensure patient safety. This included effective instrument decontamination practices.
• Staff had received training appropriate to their roles.
• Staff were knowledgeable about patient confidentiality
• Patients were able to make routine and emergency appointments when needed
• The patient comment cards we reviewed indicated that patients were consistently treated with kindness and respect by staff. It was reported that communication with patients, access to the service and the dentist, was good. Patient feedback slips consistently rated the practice and staff as excellent.

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

• Ensure waste is secured in accordance with relevant regulations giving due regard to guidance issued in the Health Technical Memorandum 07-01 (HTM 07-01).