We carried out a comprehensive inspection of Billinge Dental Practice on 7 May 2015.

Billinge Dental Practice is part of Brand IDH, a national organisation which operates 600 dental practices across the United Kingdom. It offers mainly (approximately 80%) NHS dental care services to patients of all ages. The services provided include preventative advice and treatment and routine and restorative dental care. Treatment and waiting rooms are on the ground floor of the premises.

The practice has three dentists, one of whom is part time; seven dental nurses (who also worked as receptionists), a part-time hygienist, a receptionist and a practice manager. The practice manager is applying to be the registered manager for the practice. 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. The practice manager is full time but is also responsible for one other practice.

The practice is open Monday to Wednesday day from 9-00am to 5-30pm, Thursday from 9-00am to 6-30pm and on Friday from 8-00am to 5-00pm

We spoke with two patients who used the service on the day of our inspection and reviewed 29 completed CQC comment cards. Patients we spoke with and 27 patients who completed comment cards were positive about the care they received from the practice. They commented staff were caring, helpful and respectful and that they had confidence in the dental services provided. Two negative comments were made; one regarding the availability of appointments and one about staff attitude.

We found that this practice was providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Our key findings were:

• The practice had systems to assess and manage risks to patients, including for infection prevention and control, health and safety and the management of medical emergencies.

• Dental care records were detailed and showed on-going monitoring of patients’ oral health. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles.

• We reviewed 29 comment cards that had been completed by patients. Common themes were patients felt they were listened to and received very good care in a clean environment.

• Patients were able to make routine and emergency appointments when needed. There were clear instructions for patients regarding out of hours care.

• There were clearly defined leadership roles supporting the practice and arrangements for sharing information within the practice.

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

• Ensure the dental team is familiar with ‘The Delivering Better Oral Health toolkit’.

• Ensure staff are knowledgeable about the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and its relevance to dental practice.

• Review how feedback from the IDH patient surveys is shared with practice staff and patients.

We spoke with four people using the service. All were positive about the care they received and felt "welcomed" by the staff. The majority of services are provided to NHS clients although some people do pay privately.

Comments included,

"They are always welcoming I can recommend them", " nothing is ever done that [the dentist] has not been discussed with me" and " Most of the time I can go away and think about it. I'm never rushed".

During our visit we saw that there was a variety of information available in the reception

area. This included general information about average cost of treatment and more

specific leaflets for people with a medical condition that could affect their dental health.