Battle Hill Dental Practice

We undertook a follow up focused inspection of Battle Hill Dental Practice on 5 July 2023. This inspection was carried out to review 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 was supported by a specialist dental advisor.

We had previously undertaken a comprehensive inspection of Battle Hill Dental Practice on 4 November 2022 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 well-led care and was in breach of regulation 17 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 Battle Hill Dental Practice on our website www.cqc.org.uk.

When 1 or more of the 5 questions are not met we require the service to make improvements and send us an action plan. We then inspect again after a reasonable interval, focusing on the area where improvement was required. In addition to reviewing the improvements made since our last inspection in relation to the practice providing well-led care, we also inspected the practice to ensure they were providing caring and responsive care, which had not been assessed at the previous inspection.

As part of this inspection we asked:

• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

Our findings were:

• Patients were treated with dignity and respect. Staff took care to protect patients’ privacy and personal information.
• The appointment system worked efficiently to respond to patients’ needs
• Staff and patients were asked for feedback about the services provided.
• The frequency of appointments was agreed between the dentist and the patient, giving due regard to National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.
• Improvements were needed to ensure complaints were dealt with positively and efficiently.
• The provider confirmed they had information governance arrangements, although staff were unclear what these were.

Are services well-led?

We found this practice was not providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

The provider had made insufficient improvements to put right the shortfalls and had not responded to the regulatory breach we found at our inspection on 4 November 2022.

Background

Battle Hill Dental Practice is in Hexham in Northumberland and provides NHS and private dental care and treatment for adults and children.

There is level access to the practice for people who use wheelchairs and those with pushchairs. The practice is located near local transport routes. Car parking spaces, including dedicated parking for disabled people, are available near the practice. The practice has made some adjustments to support patients with additional needs.

The dental team includes 1 dentist, 1 dental nurse, 1 trainee dental nurse, 1 dental hygienist and a practice manager/dental nurse. The practice has 2 treatment rooms.

During the inspection we spoke with the dentist, the dental nurse, the trainee dental nurse and the practice manager/dental nurse. We looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed.

The practice is open:

Monday and Thursday from 9am to 5.30pm

Tuesday and Wednesday from 9am to 5pm

Friday from 8am to 1pm

The practice closes for lunch between 1pm and 2pm daily

We identified regulations the provider was not meeting. They must:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

Full details of the regulation the provider was not meeting are at the end of this report.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements. They should:

• Take action to ensure that all clinical staff have adequate immunity for vaccine preventable infectious diseases.
• Take action to ensure the availability of an interpreter service for patients who do not speak English as their first language.
• Take action to ensure the practice stores dental care records securely.