• Dentist
  • Dentist

Archived: G T Bennett

38 Durnford Street, Middleton, Manchester, Lancashire, M24 5UD (0161) 643 4932

Provided and run by:
G T Bennett

All Inspections

1 May 2019

During a routine inspection

We carried out this announced inspection on 1 May 2019 in response to receiving information of concern, and 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 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 caring?

• Is it responsive to people’s needs?

• 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 that this practice was not providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this practice was not 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 not providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Background

G T Bennett is a dental surgery in Middleton, Manchester and provides NHS and private treatment to adults and children.

There is level access for people who use wheelchairs and those with pushchairs. On-street parking is available near the practice.

The dental team includes the principal dentist and an associate dentist, two dental nurses (one of whom is a trainee), and a dental hygienist who also manages the practice. The practice has three treatment rooms.

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.

On the day of inspection, we collected 11 CQC comment cards filled in by patients.

During the inspection we spoke with the principal dentist, the dental nurses and the dental hygienist. We looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed.

The practice is open:

Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9:30am to 5pm

Tuesday 9:30am to 7pm

Thursday 8am to 1pm

Our key findings were:

  • The premises were not clean or well maintained.
  • The infection control procedures did not reflect published guidance.
  • Appropriate medicines and life-saving equipment were not available to enable staff to respond to medical emergencies.
  • The practice did not have systems to help them identify and manage risk to patients and staff.
  • The provider had suitable safeguarding processes. However not all staff received training or knew their responsibilities for safeguarding vulnerable adults and children.
  • The provider had staff recruitment procedures.
  • The clinical staff did not provide 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.
  • The appointment system took account of patients’ needs.
  • The provider did not have effective leadership or a culture of continuous improvement.
  • Staff felt supported and worked well as a team.
  • The provider had suitable information governance arrangements.

We identified regulations the provider was not complying with. They must:

  • Ensure the care and treatment of patients is appropriate, meets their needs and reflects their preferences
  • Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients
  • Ensure all premises and equipment used by the service provider is fit for use and maintain appropriate standards of hygiene for premises and equipment
  • Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care

Full details of the regulations the provider was not meeting are at the end of this report.

We took urgent action to ensure people could not be exposed to a risk of harm and suspended the provider’s CQC registration for a period of three months to allow the provider to act on the risks.

This notice of urgent suspension was issued because we believe that a person will or may be exposed to the risk of harm if we do not take this action.

The provider sent a written confirmation on 3 May 2019 that they were taking immediate retirement and confirmed that no further regulated activities will be carried out at the location.

This was confirmed by NHS England who were making arrangements to ensure patients could continue to receive care elsewhere.

During a check to make sure that the improvements required had been made

When we carried out our initial review of compliance on 12 November 2012, we had minor concerns relating to this standard. During that review, we found that people were not always protected from the risk of infection because the appropriate guidance had not always been followed. This was because we found some clean instruments stored in sealed packaging without a use by date following national guidelines and a number of clean packaged instruments that had passed their recommended use by date. We also saw there was a backup autoclave with no servicing records.

We carried out this desktop review to check whether improvements had been made. As part of this review, we were provided with documentation that showed the provider had created a specific audit to monitor the instruments on a monthly basis to ensure that national guidance was being followed. We also spoke with the Dental Hygienist who confirmed that the backup autoclave had been removed from the surgery and was awaiting destruction.