Archived: Heathfield Dental Practice

The practice met the essential quality requirements of Health Technical Memorandum 01-05. The HTM 01-05 is guidance designed to assist all registered primary dental care services to ensure that their practice meets satisfactory levels of decontamination. Staff discussed patient treatment and any other issues on a daily basis. If concerns were raised at any time then staff could speak to one of their colleagues or supervisors and did not need to wait for formal staff meetings to take place.

We saw there was a suitable recruitment procedure in place which ensured prospective employees provided the required documentation. However we found that not all the required documentation was available for staff already employed and this was because there was a small number of staff who had been employed by the practice in excess of four years. We discussed this with the practice manager and following inspection we received evidence that the required documentation had been received. This assured us that the appropriate checks had been made on existing staff.

The practice had a complaints policy which explained the complaints procedure as well as a suggestions/comments box in the reception area. We saw that action was taken when required and people were encouraged to make a formal complaint if they felt it necessary to do so.