Updated 17 October 2023
We undertook a follow up inspection on 12 October 2023. This inspection 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 provider was now meeting legal requirements.
We had previously undertaken a comprehensive inspection of the practice on 18 April 2023 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. You can read our report of that inspection by selecting the 'all reports' link for High Street Dental Practice on our website www.cqc.org.uk.
When 1 or more of the 5 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. The provider had made effective improvements in relation to the regulatory breach we found at our previous inspection. In general improvements were noted in dental care records, hand hygiene, staff recruitment and fire safety.
These improvements now need to be embedded and sustained in the long run.
There were areas where the provider could make improvements. They should:
- Improve the security of NHS prescription pads in the practice and ensure there are systems in place to identify any missing or lost scripts.
Background
High Street Practice provides both NHS funded and private dental care and treatment for adults and children. The practice is accessible for wheelchair users although the toilet is not and there is no dedicated parking for patients on site. There are 2 treatment rooms.
The dental team includes1 dentist, 2 trainee dental nurses, a practice manager and a receptionist who works off-site.
The practice is open on Mondays from 9am to 5pm, and on Wednesdays from 10am to 7pm.
During the inspection we spoke with the dentist and the practice manager. We looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed.