Updated 8 January 2019
We undertook a follow up inspection of St Helier Dental Surgery on 7 December 2018. This inspection 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 inspection was led by a CQC inspector who was supported by a specialist dental adviser.
We undertook a comprehensive inspection of St Helier Dental Surgery on 15 June 2018 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 well led care in accordance with the relevant regulations 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 St Helier Dental Surgery on our website www.cqc.org.uk.
When one or more of the five questions are not met we require the service to make improvements and send us an action plan. We then inspect again after a reasonable interval, focusing on the area where improvement was required.
As part of this inspection we asked:
• Is it well-led?
Our findings were:
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 breach we found at our inspection on 15 June 2018.
We found this practice was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Background
St Helier is in the London borough of Merton and provides NHS and private treatment to adults and children.
There is level access for people who use wheelchairs and those with pushchairs. Unrestricted car parking spaces are available in local surrounding roads.
The dental team includes five dentists, five dental nurses (two of which also provide reception duties), two dental hygienists and two receptionists. 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.
During the inspection we spoke with the principal dentist and two dental nurses and the receptionist. We looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed.
Our key findings were:
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The provider had established effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.
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Systems were in place to demonstrate how they used learning from incidents and complaints to improve the service.
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Systems were in place to monitor staff training.
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Policies and procedures were up to date
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An up to date sharps risk assessment was in place.
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All staff had completed recent medical emergencies training.
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Systems were in place to obtain and store documentation relating to staff recruitment.
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The provider had reviewed their responsibilities to consider the needs of patients with disabilities.
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The safeguarding policy was up to date and details of the local authority were readily available to staff.