Updated 27 August 2019
We undertook a focused inspection of Dental Pods (Hygiene Services) Ltd on 12 August 2019. This 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 now met legal requirements.
We had undertaken a comprehensive inspection 17 December 2018 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 in accordance with the relevant regulations 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 Newnham Dental Practice on our website www.cqc.org.uk.
When one or more of the five 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 areas where improvement was required.
As part of this inspection we asked:
- Is it well-led
Our findings were:
We found this practice was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Background
Dental Pods (Hygiene Services) Ltd is based at Unit 1 & 2 St Peters Arcade in Peterborough city centre and provides private dental treatment to about 1300 patients. The dental team includes three part-time dentists, a practice manager, two dental nurses and a receptionist. There are two treatment rooms.
The practice opens on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 9 am to 5 pm; and on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm. Car parking spaces, including some for blue badge holders, are available in public car parks near to the practice.
The practice is owned by a company and as a condition of registration must have a person registered with the Care Quality Commission as the registered manager. Registered managers have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the practice is run. One of the directors, who is also the practice manager, is the registered manager for the service.
On the day of inspection, we spoke with the practice manager and one of the directors of the company.
Our key findings were:
The provider had made sufficient improvements in relation to the regulatory breach we found at our previous inspection on 17 December 2018. These included the management of complaints, the appraisal of staff, fire and legionella safety, and the use of dental dams.
These must now be embedded and sustained in the long-term.