The Care Quality Commission
  • Dentist
  • Dentist

Archived: Mr Stephen Hambleton - Warley

12b High Street, Warley, Rowley Regis, West Midlands, B65 0DT (0121) 559 5005

Provided and run by:
Mr. Stephen Hambleton

Important: The provider of this service changed. See new profile

All Inspections

11 January 2016

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 11 January 2016 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 not providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Background

Stephen Hambleton Dental Practice has two dentists, one of which works full time and one part time, five qualified dental nurses who are registered with the General Dental Council (GDC), a part time administration assistant and a dental therapist/hygienist. The practice’s opening hours are 9am to 5.30pm Monday to Thursday and 9am to 1pm on Friday. The practice is closed between 1pm – 2pm on Monday to Thursday.

Stephen Hambleton Dental Practice provides NHS and private treatment for adults and children. The practice is located on the first floor of a converted property and has a reception, waiting area and two dental treatment rooms. Decontamination of dental instruments (cleaning, sterilising and packing dental instruments) takes place in each dental treatment room. There is also a reception and waiting area.

The principal dentist is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as an individual. 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 73 completed cards and spoke with three patients. These provided an overwhelmingly positive view of the services the practice provides. Patients commented that the quality of care was excellent.

Our key findings were:

  • There were sufficient numbers of suitably qualified staff to meet the needs of patients.
  • Patients were treated with dignity and respect.
  • The provider had emergency medicines in line with the British National Formulary (BNF) guidance for medical emergencies in dental practice.
  • Staff had been trained to deal with medical emergencies.
  • The practice kept up to date with current guidelines when considering the care and treatment needs of patients.
  • Some infection prevention and control systems were in place, although audits were not completed on a six monthly basis.
  • Options for treatment were identified and explored and patients said they were involved in making decisions about their treatment.
  • Patients’ confidentiality was maintained.
  • The appointment system met the needs of patients and waiting times were kept to a minimum.
  • Health promotion advice was given to patients appropriate to their individual needs such as smoking cessation or dietary advice.
  • Feedback from 73 patients gave us a positive picture of a friendly, caring and professional service.

We identified regulations that were not being met and the provider must:

  • Ensure an effective system is established to assess, monitor and mitigate the various risks arising from undertaking of the regulated activities. This should include regular clinical audits to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service and six monthly infection prevention and control audits.

You can see full details of the regulations not being met at the end of this report.

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

  • Implement systems for the reporting and recording of significant events and agree learning outcomes which should be discussed with staff.
  • Register with the MHRA to receive medicine safety alerts and ensure that any alerts relevant to the practice are discussed with staff and actions taken as appropriate.
  • Implement a system to ensure that the information located in the policies and procedures files is the most up to date information held at the practice.
  • Develop a system to demonstrate cleaning undertaken at the practice with records available and ensure that cleaning equipment is stored correctly.
  • Develop a robust policy regarding the safe use and disposal of sharps which includes contact details for the local occupational health department.
  • Regular staff meetings should be held to discuss any issues within the practice and records should be available to demonstrate discussions held.
  • Consider that an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record is kept in respect of each patient, including a record of the decisions taken in relation to the care and treatment provided and justification for taking X-rays.
  • Review the way in which patient consent is recorded in dental care records.
  • Review at appropriate intervals the training, learning and development needs of individual staff members, ensure that staff have completed relevant training/updates and have an effective process established for staff appraisals.
  • Implement systems to demonstrate that smoke detectors are checked to ensure they are in good working order and records kept to demonstrate this.
  • Provide evidence that the actions identified in the 2007 fire risk assessment have been addressed.
  • Implement clear procedures for managing comments, concerns or complaints. Review the complaints process and ensure that patients receive written confirmation of investigation and actions taken and that learning is identified to improve the service.

13 March 2012

During a routine inspection

This dental practice location is a small dental practice, owned and operated by one person. This dental practice is situated on the main high street in Blackheath, Rowley Regis. The practice is made up of a small team which includes two dentists, three dental nurses, a hygienist and a receptionist. The practice is in the process of recruiting a trainee dental nurse.

This practice provides a full range of general dental assessments and treatments.

The practice location only has two treatment rooms. Treatment rooms and the waiting room are all on the first floor so would not be suitable for people who use a wheelchair.

People receiving care and treatment from this practice location pay independently or can access their dentistry through NHS costs. The practice has a current contract with the NHS to provide NHS dental care to people.

As part of our review we spoke with two people by phone (these people also told us about the experiences of other family members) and two people in the waiting room. People spoke highly of this dentist practice. People were satisfied with the care and treatment they had received. Below are a few comments people made;

'I have been using this dentist for about 20 years. In my view Mr Hambleton is an excellent dentist and the practice is well run. The staff are extremely helpful, they are pleasant and polite.'

'I have been using this dentist for about 16 years. I think that this dentist is absolutely excellent. All the staff are really caring and pleasant.'

'I have been coming to this dentist for over 30 years, in my view they are brilliant. My whole family use this dentist as well. We are all more than satisfied and don't want to go anywhere else.'

'It is a nice friendly service. Nice happy people which takes away any trauma of treatments'.

We spoke with a number of staff. They made positive comments about working at this dental practice. One staff member told us that all staff work as a team. Another staff member told us;' We know all our patients very well. A number of patients have been coming here for a number of years. Their children then come here as do some people's grandchildren. We care about people. We provide a 'holistic' service looking at the whole person rather than just their dental needs".

Evidence that we gathered during this review confirmed that people are assessed to decide what dental and oral healthcare needs they may have. Treatments that people may need are discussed with them and are carried out in a satisfactory way.

Overall we found good practices regarding infection control and cleaning procedures which demonstrated compliance in this area.

Although we did not assess recruitment and medication we had a discussion with the registered provider and offered suggestions for improvement in these areas such as the monitoring of temperatures in the rooms where emergency medication is kept and ways in which recruitment practice could be bettered. The registered owner was receptive to our suggestions and confirmed that they would address these issues.