Updated 22 December 2020
We undertook a follow up desk-based focused review of Abbeyside Dental Practice on 30 November 2020. This review was carried out to review 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.
We undertook a focused inspection of Abbeyside Dental Practice on 9 January 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 well-led care and was in breach of regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Previously we had also undertaken a comprehensive inspection of Abbeyside Dental Practice on 16 July 2019 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, 17 and 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can read our reports of those inspections by selecting the 'all reports' link for Abbeyside dental practice on our website www.cqc.org.uk.
For this review, we looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed. We also interviewed three staff members online via a video call.
As part of this inspection we asked:
• 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 (requirement notice only). We then inspect again after a reasonable interval, focusing on the areas where improvement was required.
Our findings were:
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 breach we found at our inspection on 9 January 2020.
Background
Abbeyside Dental Practice is in Stoke on Trent and provides NHS and private treatment for adults and children.
The entire practice is situated on the first floor and there is no level access for people who use wheelchairs and those with pushchairs. The provider has plans to include a ground floor treatment room in the near future. Car parking spaces are available immediately outside the practice.
The dental team includes one dentist, four dental nurses (two of whom also carry out practice management duties) and two receptionists. The practice has two treatment rooms.
The practice is owned by an individual who is the principal dentist there. They have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the practice is run.
During this review we spoke with the dentist and the two practice managers. We looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed.
The practice is open:
Monday to Friday: 9am – 5pm
Our key findings were:
- Improvements had been made in areas such as fire and electrical safety, staff training, staff immunisation status records, risk assessments, recruitment, the management of medical emergencies, audits and infection prevention and control.
There were areas where the provider could make improvements. They should:
- Implement an effective system for monitoring and recording the fridge temperature to ensure that medicines and dental care products are stored in line with the manufacturer’s guidance.
- Implement an effective system of checks of medical emergency equipment and medicines taking into account the guidelines issued by the Resuscitation Council (UK) and the General Dental Council.
- Improve the practice’s arrangements for ensuring good governance and leadership are sustained in the longer term.