Archived: Polska Przychodnia

Updated 7 January 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 service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

We inspected the practice against one of the five questions we ask about services: Is the service safe regarding the infection prevention and control measures in place for the dental treatment provided.

The focused inspection was carried out on the 16 November 2015 by two CQC inspectors from the Care Quality Commission. The 2nd inspector was also a registered dentist and provided specialist dental advice.

During the inspection we toured the premises and spoke with the registered manager. We did not speak with the dentists and dental nurses on the day of the inspection as there were no dental clinics taking place that day.To assess the quality of care provided we looked at practice policies and protocols and other records relating to the management of infection prevention and control in the provision of dental treatment.

Updated 7 January 2016

We carried out an announced focused inspection of Polska Przychodnia on 16 November 2015. We received concerning information regarding the infection prevention and control procedures used by the service when providing dental treatment. We carried out an inspection in response to those concerns. You can read the report from our previous inspection by selecting the all reports link for Polska Przychodnia on our website www.cqc.org.uk.

Our findings were:

• Are services safe?

We found that this practice was not providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations regarding infection prevention and control in the provision of dental treatment.

Background

Polska Przychodnia is an independent consulting doctors service situated in Eccles, Manchester. It provides a range of consultation and treatment services including dental treatment, physiotherapy, dermatology, gynaecology and counselling mainly to Polish speaking patients. The service has two consulting rooms on the ground floor of the premises and a consulting room and dental treatment room on the first floor. A decontamination room is situated close to the dental treatment room.

The registered provider is also 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 service is run.

Dental treatment is provided by two visiting dentists and two part-time dental nurses at weekends. Appointments for dental treatment are available up until 8pm, however the manager confirmed they remained open up until 10.00pm if required. No clinics were operating on the day of the inspection and we were unable to speak with any patients attending the service for dental treatment.

Our key findings were:

• There were policies and procedures in place providing guidance on how to maintain a clean and hygienic environment
• The service did not consistently follow their own infection prevention and control policies or take account of the guidance about decontamination and infection control issued by the Department of Health
• There was a lack of assurance that the decontamination of re-useable instruments was consistently effective as there were no manufacturer’s operating procedures or guidelines available and quality assurance checks were incomplete

We identified a regulation that was not being met and the provider must:

• Ensure the service’s infection control procedures and protocols are suitable giving due regard to guidelines issued by the Department of Health - Health Technical Memorandum 01-05: Decontamination in primary care dental practices and The Health and Social Care Act 2008: ‘Code of Practice about the prevention and control of infections and related guidance’
• Ensure the equipment used for decontamination is safe and procedures are effective for the purpose of sterilising instruments used in dental treatments
• Ensure waste is stored securely in a clean and tidy environment and that the timeliness of its disposal is in accordance with relevant regulations giving due regard to guidance issued in the Health Technical Memorandum 07-01 (HTM 07-01).
• Ensure infection control audits are undertaken at regular intervals and learning points are documented and shared with all relevant staff

• Ensure the service has a written waterline management scheme in place and undertakes a Legionella risk assessment giving due regard to guidelines issued by the Department of Health - Health Technical Memorandum 01-05: Decontamination in primary care dental practices and The Health and Social Care Act 2008: ‘Code of Practice about the prevention and control of infections and related guidance’

• Ensure products used in infection prevention and control are identified under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) 2002 Regulations to ensure they are stored securely and used safely
• Ensure staff are skilled and knowledgeable about infection prevention and control procedures

You can see full details of the regulation not being met at the end of this report.