Updated 5 January 2021
We undertook a follow up desk-based review of Bridge Dental Practice on 11 December 2020. This review was carried out to review in detail the actions taken by the registered provider to improve the quality of care and to confirm that the practice was now meeting legal requirements.
The review was led by a CQC inspector.
We undertook a comprehensive inspection of Bridge Dental Practice on 10 March 2020 under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. We found the registered provider was not providing safe and well led care and was in breach of regulations 12, 17 and 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can read our report of that inspection by selecting the 'all reports' link for Bridge Dental Practice on our website www.cqc.org.uk.
As part of this review we asked:
• Is it safe?
• Is it well-led?
When one or more of the five questions are not met, we require the service to make improvements and send us an action plan (requirement notice only). We then review again after a reasonable interval, focusing on the areas where improvement was required.
Our findings were:
Are services safe?
We found this practice was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
The provider had made improvements in relation to the regulatory breaches we found at our inspection on 10 March 2020.
Are services well-led?
We found this practice was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
The provider had made improvements in relation to the regulatory breaches we found at our inspection on 10 March 2020.
Background
Bridge Dental Practice is in Towcester, a market town in Northamptonshire. It provides NHS and private dental care and treatment for adults and children. Services include general dentistry.
There is level access to the practice for people who use wheelchairs and those with pushchairs. Car parking spaces for patients are available in local car parks within a short distance of the premises. There is a dedicated parking space for people with disabilities in a shared private car park.
The dental team includes six dentists, four dental nurses, one sterilisation assistant, one dental hygienist, one dental hygiene therapist, one receptionist and a business manager. The practice has four treatment rooms; one of which is on ground floor level. There is also a separate decontamination room.
The practice is owned by an individual who is the principal dentist there. They have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the practice is run.
During the inspection we spoke with the business manager. We looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed.
The practice is open: Monday to Friday from 8am to 6.30pm.
Our key findings were:
- The systems and processes for safeguarding had been strengthened within the practice.
- Equipment that was missing from the practice’s emergency kit had been obtained.
- The provider sent us evidence of staff completion of radiography training where this was not available on the date of our previous visit. Monitoring for staff completion of training had improved.
- The processes for incident reporting had been strengthened to include a broader range of occurrences which could be reported. Staff had received training.
- There was an induction checklist available to prompt management to obtain references when new staff were recruited.
- We were informed that monitoring regarding the security of prescription pads had been implemented; this would identify if an individual prescription was taken inappropriately.