Updated 13 January 2021
We undertook a follow up inspection of Dental Harmony on 15 December 2020. This inspection was carried out to assess in detail the actions taken by the registered provider to improve the quality of care and to confirm that the practice was now meeting legal requirements.
The inspection was led by a CQC inspector who had remote access to a specialist dental adviser.
We undertook a comprehensive inspection of Dental Harmony on 20 February 2020 under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions.
We found the registered provider was not providing Safe or Well led care and was in breach of Regulations 12, 17and 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
You can read our report of that inspection by selecting the 'all reports' link for Dental Harmony on our website www.cqc.org.uk.
As part of this review we asked:
• Is it safe?
• Is it well-led?
When one or more of the five questions are not met, we require the service to make improvements and send us an action plan. We then review this information after a reasonable interval, focusing on the area where improvement was required.
Our findings were:
Are services safe?
We found this practice was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
The provider had made improvements in relation to the regulatory breach we found at our inspection on 20 February 2020.
Are services well-led?
We found this practice was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
The provider had made improvements in relation to the regulatory breaches we found at our inspection on 20 February 2020.
Background
Dental Harmony is in Gants Hill in the London Borough of Redbridge and provides private dental care and treatment for adults and children.
The practice is located on the ground floor and has two treatment rooms. There is level access to the practice for people who use wheelchairs and those with pushchairs.
The practice is located close to public transport links.
The dental team includes the registered manager, three dentists, one specialist oral surgeon, three trainee dental nurses and two receptionists.
The practice is owned by an organisation and as a condition of registration must have a person registered with the Care Quality Commission as the registered manager. Registered managers 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 registered manager at Dental Harmony is one of the owners.
During the inspection we spoke with the practice owner, one trainee dental nurse and the receptionist. We looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed.
The practice is open between
Mondays to Fridays 10.00 am to 8.00 pm
Saturdays 9.00 am to 6.00 pm
Our key findings were:
Improvements had been made to the systems for:
- assessing and managing risks to patients.
- ensuring up-to-date documentation relating to staff recruitment and training was available.
- monitoring patient referrals.
- managing medicines safely.
- ensuring single-use items were disposed of appropriately and not re-used.
- managing risks associated with the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002.
Systems and arrangements were now in place to:
- monitor the use-by dates of all dental materials.
- ensure the effective decontamination of dental instruments.
- ensure that all clinical staff had adequate immunity against vaccine preventable infectious diseases.
- ensure that staff undertook suitable training, relevant to their roles and responsibilities including practical training in dealing with medical emergencies and infection control.
- support and monitor trainee dental nurses to carry out their role effectively.
- check and monitor equipment taking into account relevant guidance to ensure that all equipment was well maintained.
There were areas where the provider could make improvements. They should:
- Review the practice’s protocols for the use of closed circuit television cameras taking into account the guidelines published by the Information Commissioner's Office.