Archived: Bhandal Dental Practice - 148 High Street

Updated 17 March 2016

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection on 27 January 2016 as part of our planned inspection of all dental practices. The inspection took place over one day and was carried out by a lead inspector and a dental specialist adviser.

We informed NHS England area team that we were inspecting the practice, however there were no immediate concerns from them.

During our inspection visit, we reviewed policy documents and staff records. We spoke with ten members of staff, including the management team. We looked at the storage arrangements for emergency medicines and equipment. We were shown the decontamination procedures for dental instruments and computer system that supported the patient treatment records and patient dental health education programme. We spoke with six patients.

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 caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection

Updated 17 March 2016

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection on 27 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 providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Background

Bhandal Dental Practice has 17 dentists, 30 qualified dental nurses who are registered with the General Dental Council (GDC) and three dental therapists. A number of dental nurses work as ‘bank’ staff and may be required to work at other Bhandal dental surgeries. The practice’s opening hours are from 7.30am to 6pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 7.30am to 8pm on Thursday and 7.30am to 1pm on Saturday. The practice is closed between 1pm and 2pm Monday to Friday.

Bhandal Dental Practice provides NHS and private treatment for adults and children. The practice is situated in a converted property. There are twenty dental treatment rooms; seven on the ground floor and 13 on the first floor. There are two separate decontamination rooms for cleaning, sterilising and packing dental instruments. There is also a reception and a main waiting area on the ground floor with other seating areas available on the first floor.

One of the practice owners 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.

This was an unannounced inspection visit. We spoke with six patients during the inspection to obtain their views and details of their experience of the practice. These provided a generally positive view of the services the practice provides. All of the patients commented that the quality of care was good.

Our key findings were:

• Systems were in place for the recording and learning from significant events and accidents.
• There were sufficient numbers of suitably qualified staff to meet the needs of patients.
• Patients were treated with dignity and respect.
• The practice was visibly clean and well maintained.
• 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.
• Infection prevention and control systems were in place, and audits were 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.
• Some staff from within the practice visited local schools to provide oral health and hygiene advice to children.

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

• Establish and operate effectively an accessible system for identifying, receiving, recording, handling and responding to both verbal and written complaints by service users.
• Establish and operate an effective staff appraisal system which enables to staff to raise issues or concerns and to receive feedback about their work at the practice. Personal development plans should be included within the appraisal process.
• Implement a system to demonstrate which staff have undertaken fire drills.