1 August 2013
During a routine inspection
We met with a dentist and hygienist and spoke with the practice manager, reception staff, and dental nurses, one of whom was also the infection control and decontamination lead. They confirmed that their priority was to give a high quality service, to listen to their patients and to continually improve.
Patients told us that they were given appropriate information and advice regarding their treatment needs and associated costs so that they could make an informed decision about their treatment. We saw patient records which showed that each person had a comprehensive assessment of their dental health needs and a plan of treatment. Each patient had been asked for their consent to treatment and had signed their agreement.
We saw that patients were protected from harm, through the safe recruitment of staff, staff training and effective risk assessment. Staff at the practice told us they were confident they would know the action to take if they had any safeguarding concerns regarding people who attended the surgery.
The practice was clean and hygienic and we saw that infection control procedures were in place to ensure patients were protected from the risk of infection.
The service had an effective system to regularly assess the quality of its service. For
example, we saw there were regular audits of clinical practice and that the practice carried out patient surveys.
We saw the practice had a complaints policy that was made available to patients and that the practice responded effectively to comments and complaints.