Archived: The Blockley Partnership Dental Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 15 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 Blockley Partnership Dental Practice is a mixed dental practice providing both NHS and private treatment. The practice caters for children and adults and is situated in a listed building in Tunbridge Wells

The practice provides services on two levels and has seven treatment rooms, two X-ray rooms, a laboratory, reception and two waiting areas.

One of the dentists 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.

The practice has seven dentists, three dental hygienists, one dental therapist who provided preventative advice and treatments on prescription from the dentists working at the practice. The dentists and hygienists are supported by eight dental nurses, five receptionists, a practice secretary, a laboratory assistant and a practice manager.

Before our inspection we sent Care Quality Commission comment cards to the practice for patients to complete to tell us about their experience of using the practice. We collected 79 completed cards. All provided a positive view of the service the practice provides. Patients commented the team were kind, caring, efficient and that they had received excellent care. The majority commented that the practice was very clean and many told us that nothing was too much trouble, that staff went out of their way to help them.

Our key findings were:

• Staff reported incidents and kept records of these which were used for shared learning and improvement
• The practice was visibly clean and well maintained
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care and treatment was planned and delivered in line with current guidance.
• The practice had effective safeguarding processes and staff understood their responsibilities for safeguarding vulnerable adults and children.
• The practice placed an emphasis on the promotion of good oral health and provided regular oral health advice to patients.
• Staff had received training appropriate to their role and were supported in their continued professional development.
• Information from 79 completed comment cards gave us a positive picture of a friendly, caring, professional service.
• The practice took into account and comments, suggestions or complaints and used these to make improvements to the service.
• Staff were well supported and were committed to providing a quality service to their patients.