Archived: HealthCare Elite

Updated 6 September 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the practice was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

The focused inspection was carried out on 20 April 2016 by a lead CQC inspector. The inspection was announced. We received an action plan from the provider and evidence of actions taken to address the breaches of regulation found at the last inspection.

During the inspection we spoke with the registered manager/ practice manager and one of the dental nurses. We did not speak with any patients on this occasion. We looked around the premises and the treatment rooms. We reviewed a range of policies and procedures and other documents including dental care records, staff recruitment files, audits, X-ray documents, staff training, risk assessments and adherence to HTM01-05 guidance.

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 6 September 2016

We carried out an unannounced focused inspection on 20 April 2016 to follow up on previous inspections carried out on 8 October 2015 to ask the practice the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, 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 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

We inspected the practice on 08 October 2015 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding Regulation 12 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 Safe care and treatment, Regulation 18 HSCA (RA) Staffing and Regulation 17 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 Good governance. We checked these breaches as part of the focused inspection on 20 April 2016.

Healthcare Elite provides private dental treatment from their clinic in Gravesend Kent. The dental treatment provided is general and cosmetic dentistry. The practice mostly provides treatment for adults but has a small number of patients that are children.

Practice staffing consist of the principal dentist who is also the owner a registered manager who is the practice manager, two dentists, two dental nurses (one qualified and one student, and a hygienist. 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.

The practice opening hours are 9am to 5pm Monday, Wednesday and Thursday

9am to 8pm Tuesday, 9am to 4pm Friday and 9am to 1pm Saturdays.

Our key findings were:

• The practice had systems and processes to monitor the safe management of medicines and materials
• The practice had implemented systems to ensure that out of date and expired instruments and materials were re-processed and/or disposed of.
• The practice had carried out audits in key areas, such as infection control, record keeping and the quality of X-rays.
• There were systems in place to check all equipment had been serviced and maintained regularly, including the steriliser and the X-ray equipment.
• Dental care records were consistent and contained accurate information of the treatments provided to patients.
• Staff followed the appropriate decontamination process of instruments according to national guidelines. And monitored all aspects of the infection control procedures.
• Staff had received further training appropriate to their roles and were supported in their continued professional development (CPD).