We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 14 December 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

Fylde Dental Clinic was established in 2009 by a clinical dental technician to provide a private denture service to patients. The clinic registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2014 when a dentist was employed to provide a private general dental treatment service to patients of all ages. The dentist provides this service every Tuesday. The dentist and the clinical dental technician work independently of each other but confer on treatments when it is in the best interest of the patient. Two dental nurses are employed at the clinic. The clinic is open to patients from 8.30 – 4.30 Monday to Thursday.

The clinical dental technician 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.

We reviewed feedback from 15 patients as part of the inspection. Patients were very positive about the staff and standard of care provided at the practice. Patients commented that they felt involved in all aspects of their care and found the staff to be helpful, respectful, friendly and were treated in a clean and tidy environment.

Our key findings were:

• The practice was well organised, visibly clean and free from clutter.
• An infection prevention and control policy was in place. We saw the sterilisation procedures followed recommended guidance.
• Systems were in place for recording accidents and significant events
• The practice had a safeguarding policy and staff were aware on how to escalate safeguarding issues for children and adults should the need arise.
• Staff received annual medical emergency training.
• The dentist provided treatment in accordance with current professional guidelines.
• Patient feedback was regularly sought and analysed.
• Patients could access urgent care when required.
• A complaints process was in place but the practice had never received a complaint.
• Consent from patients was sought before treatment started.

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

• Review the practice’s patient safety incident management policy to ensure it clarifies the types of incidents that could occur at the practice and those that constitute a significant event.
• Review the availability of a legionella risk assessment carried out by a competent person giving due regard to the guidelines issued by the Department of Health - Health Technical Memorandum 01-05: Decontamination in primary care dental practices.
• Review the protocol for undertaking accurate, complete and detailed records relating to employment of staff. This includes making appropriate notes of verbal reference taken and ensuring recruitment checks, including references, are suitably obtained and recorded.
• Review the system for identifying and disposing of out-of-date stock.
• Review the process for carrying out the daily automatic control test on the autoclave.
• Review the approach to and monitoring arrangements for staff training, including safeguarding training, to ensure it meets mandatory training needs and the Continuing Professional Development needs of staff.