Background

Sunday Samuel Dental Practice is a mixed dental practice providing private and NHS treatment for adults and children. The present owner had taken over the practice two years ago. The practice is situated in a converted commercial property. The practice had one dental treatment room with an area set aside for the cleaning, sterilising and packing dental instruments, a reception and separate waiting area on the ground floor.

The practice is open 08.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday. The practice is open on the occasional Saturday 9.00am-2.00pm. The practice has one dentist, the practice owner, and they are supported by one trainee dental nurse 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.

Before the inspection, we sent Care Quality Commission comment cards to the practice for patients to complete to tell us about their experience of the practice. We received feedback from 92 patients. These provided a completely positive view of the services the practice provides. Patients commented on the high quality of care, the caring nature of all staff, the cleanliness of the practice and the overall high quality of customer care.

Our key findings were:

• The practice philosophy was to provide high quality patient centred care with an emphasis on the prevention of dental disease at all times
• The dentist and the trainee dental nurse had been trained to handle emergencies and appropriate medicines and life-saving equipment was readily available in accordance with current guidelines.
• The practice appeared very clean and well maintained.
• Infection control procedures were robust and the practice followed published guidance.
• The dentist acted as the safeguarding lead with effective processes in place for safeguarding adults and children living in vulnerable circumstances.
• A system was in place to report incidents with practice meetings used as a vehicle for shared learning.
• The dentist provided dental care in accordance with current professional and National Institute for Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines
• The service was aware of the needs of the local population and took these into account in how the practice was run.
• Patients could access treatment and urgent and emergency care when required.
• 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).
• Staff we spoke to felt well supported by the practice owner and were committed to providing a quality service to their patients.
• Information from 92 completed Care Quality Commission (CQC) comment cards gave us a completely positive picture of a friendly, caring, professional and high quality service.
• The practice received two complaints throughout 2015 and all complaints had been dealt with effectively according to the practice complaints procedure.