When we arrived at Matchborough Dental Surgery we were met by a dental nurse who was working as the receptionist. Another of the dental nurses took on this role during the afternoon. During our time at the surgery we spoke to other nurses and the dentist working that day.In addition to people working at the practice we also spoke with a patient who had received treatment. We spoke with two people on the telephone who had recently attended the practice. In addition we received e-mails from three patients and written comments from another three patients.
The people we spoke with were positive about the practice and appreciative of the care they received there. Comments included 'always made very welcome' and 'the service is excellent'. One patient told us that they were 'frightened' about visiting the dentist but made to feel 'so at ease' that they returned and found the service to be 'great' and 'think they are excellent.'
People confirmed that the dentist and nurse wore disposable gloves and aprons when providing their treatment. Patients also confirmed that they are given goggles to wear while treatment was carried out.
The practice was in a converted first floor maisonette. The practice could only be reached by means of climbing an external staircase. The practice had two dental surgeries. A separate decontamination room was situated on the ground floor of the practice. Instruments were taken to the decontamination room in a blue plastic container and then returned to the surgery in a pink plastic container. These colours denote dirty and clean equipment.
We were told that once instruments come out of the autoclave that they were placed into a sealed packet. We were informed that packaged instruments were dated to show how long they could be safely stored. We viewed packed instruments in one of the surgeries and found four that where out of date as well as one sealed pack not dated at all. In addition we saw three packets which were not sealed down and were not dated. The dentist confirmed that a system was not in place to check dates and that they could not be sure that the out of date equipment would be noticed before being reused.