Background

Whitecross Dental Care is a mixed dental practice providing mainly NHS and some private treatment for both adults and children. The practice is situated in a converted commercial property. The practice had six dental treatment rooms and a separate decontamination room for cleaning, sterilising and packing dental instruments. The dental treatment rooms are all situated on the ground floor.

The practice is open 9:00am to 5:30pm Monday to Friday. The practice has four dentists who are supported by 4 dental nurses and a receptionist. The practice also has a dental hygienist who works part-time.

The practice manager is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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 (CQC) comment cards to the practice for patients to complete to tell us about their experience of the practice. We received feedback from patients. These provided a completely positive view of the services the practice provides. Patients commented that the quality of care was very good and staff were very helpful and caring

Our key findings were:

• The practice benefitted from a stable staff base and an empowered practice manager.
• Staff we spoke to felt supported by the practice manager and were committed to providing a quality service to their patients.
• Staff had been trained to handle emergencies and appropriate medicines and life-saving equipment was readily available in accordance with current guidelines.
• The practice was visibly clean and well maintained.
• Infection control procedures were robust and the practice followed published guidance.
• The practice had a dedicated safeguarding lead with effective safeguarding processes in place for safeguarding adults and children living in vulnerable circumstances.
• The service was aware of the needs of the local population and took those these into account in how the practice was run.
• Patients could access treatment and urgent and emergency care when required.
• Staff reported incidents and kept records of these which the practice used for shared learning.
• 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).
• Information from five completed Care Quality Commission (CQC) comment cards and sought the views of a further 15 patients on the day of our visit, this gave us a positive picture of a friendly, professional service.
• The practice had a rolling programme of clinical and non-clinical audit in place.

We spoke with five people who used the service, two dentists, three dental nurses, a receptionist, compliance manager and the acting manager. People who used the service told us they had confidence in the dentists. They told us their treatment options were discussed with them and they were satisfied with care and attention they received.

People told us they were treated with respect and their privacy and dignity was maintained. They said they received a copy of their treatment plan and were made aware of the costs of their treatment. Staff were trained to deal with a medical emergency.

People received their treatment in a clean, hygienic environment. The practice had arrangements in place for the safe management of infection control to reduce the risk of cross infection.

People considered staff were friendly and competent. One person said, “My dentist is superb”. We saw staff had attended training to meet the requirement of their professional registration.

Most of the people we spoke with were aware the practice had a complaints procedure in place. They told us they had not felt the need to complain but were confident any concerns raised would be addressed.