Lynton Dental Practice

We carried out this announced inspection on 24 May 2022 under section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. We planned the inspection to check whether the registered provider was meeting the legal requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations. The inspection was led by a Care Quality Commission, (CQC), inspector who was supported by a specialist dental adviser.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?

• Is it effective?

• Is it well-led?

These questions form the framework for the areas we look at during the inspection.

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found this practice was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found this practice was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found this practice was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Background

Lynton Dental Practice is in the town of Accrington, Lancashire, and provides private dental care and treatment for adults and children.

There is level access to the practice for people who use wheelchairs and those with pushchairs. Car parking spaces in public car parks are available near the practice.

The dental team includes one dentist, two dental nurses, one of whom is the practice manager, on dental hygiene therapists and a receptionist. The practice has one treatment room.

The practice is owned by a company and as a condition of registration must have a person registered with the CQC 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. At the time of our inspection, the practice manager had submitted their application to CQC for processing, for designation as the registered manager at Lynton Dental Practice.

During the inspection we spoke with the dentist, the receptionist and the practice manager, who is also a dental nurse. We looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed.

The practice is open Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 5pm. It is closed daily for lunch between

1 – 2pm.

Our key findings were:

• The practice appeared to be visibly clean.
• The provider had infection control procedures which reflected published guidance.
• Staff knew how to deal with emergencies. Appropriate medicines and life-saving equipment were available.
• The provider had systems to help them manage risk to patients and staff. We discussed how these could be improved.
• The provider had safeguarding processes and staff knew their responsibilities for safeguarding vulnerable adults and children.
• The provider had staff recruitment procedures in place which reflected current legislation. However, some records of checks were not held by the practice.
• The clinical staff provided patients’ care and treatment in line with current guidelines.
• Staff treated patients with dignity and respect and took care to protect their privacy and personal information.
• Staff provided preventive care and supported patients to ensure better oral health.
• The appointment system took account of patients’ needs.
• Systems in place to support continuous improvement could be strengthened, for example the use of effective audit.
• The provider asked patients for feedback about the services they provided.
• The provider had systems in place to deal with complaints positively and efficiently.
• The provider had information governance arrangements.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements. They should:

• Improve the practice's risk management systems for monitoring and mitigating the various risks arising from the undertaking of the regulated activities, in particular, that COVID risk assessments are in place for all staff working at the practice; that instances of lone working are correctly risk assessed and; signage indicating that medical gases are stored at the premises, are correctly displayed for the benefit of emergency services who may have to access the building.

• Take action to ensure the practice stores records relating to people employed and the management of regulated activities in compliance with legislation and take into account current guidance. This should include all documents referred to in Schedule 3 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

• Take action to ensure audits of radiography, antimicrobial prescribing and infection prevention and control are undertaken at regular intervals to improve the quality of the service. Practice should also ensure that, where appropriate, audits have documented learning points and the resulting improvements can be demonstrated.