Archived: University Dental Centre

Updated 11 February 2016

We carried out an announced, comprehensive inspection on 18 December 2015. The inspection was carried out by a lead inspector and a dental specialist adviser.

We informed NHS England area team that we were inspecting the practice.

During our inspection visit, we reviewed policy documents and staff records. We spoke with five members of staff. We conducted a tour of the practice and looked at the storage arrangements for emergency medicines and equipment. We were shown the decontamination procedures for dental instruments and the computer system that supported the patient treatment records. We reviewed CQC comment cards completed by patients and obtained the view of patients on the day of our inspection. Patients gave positive feedback about their experience at the practice.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

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

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 11 February 2016

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 18 December 2015 to ask the practice the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this practice was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services effective?

We found that this practice was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services caring?

We found that this practice was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services responsive?

We found that this practice was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services well-led?

We found that this practice was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Background

The University Dental Centre is a dental practice providing mainly NHS treatment for both adults and children. The practice is situated in a purpose built centre adjacent to a medical practice near Reading University. The practice has four dental treatment rooms and a separate decontamination room used for cleaning, sterilising and packing dental instruments. The practice is based on the ground floor enabling level access throughout.

The practice employs four dentists, five dental nurses and a receptionist. Two dental nurses are qualified and registered with the General Dental Council and the other three are undergoing training. The practice’s opening hours are 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday.

The practice owner is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission 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 comment cards to the practice for patients to complete to tell us about their experience of the practice. We collected 45 completed cards and obtained the views of 17 patients on the day of our visit. These provided a positive view of the services the practice provides. All of the patients commented that the quality of care was good. Three patient comments were less than favourable about time to wait for an appointment and postponed appointments.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 18 December 2015 as part of our planned inspection of all dental practices. Our inspection was carried out by a lead inspector and a dental specialist adviser.

Our key findings were:

• 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 effective safeguarding processes in place for safeguarding adults and children living in vulnerable circumstances.
• Staff reported incidents and kept records of these that the practice used for shared learning.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in line with general professional and other published guidance.
• The practice placed an emphasis on the promotion of good oral health and provided regular oral health instruction to patients.
• The practice had enough staff to deliver the service.
• Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and were supported in their continued professional development.
• Staff we spoke with felt well supported by the registered manager and were committed to providing a quality service to their patients.
• Information from 45 completed CQC comment cards and patients who were asked their views of the service on the day of our visit gave us a positive picture of a friendly, caring and professional service.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Establish a system for recording the checks of expiry dates of emergency medicines and equipment.
• Arrange for a more suitable central storage location for emergency medicines and equipment and obtain syringes and needles to deliver emergency adrenalin.
• Establish a system for auditing dental care records.
• Re-establish the auditing of the quality of dental X-rays.
• Use the NHS treatment planning forms (FP17DC) as appropriate to help underpin the consent process.
• Consider using rubber dam during root canal procedures.
• Repair the floor seal in the practice toilet.
• Ensure registered nurses have medical indemnity insurance in place.
• Take notes of discussion and actions resulting from staff meetings.
• Respond to patient feedback posted on NHS Choices website.