N Bloom & Associates - Station Square

Updated 5 July 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.

We undertook an announced focused inspection of N Bloom & Associates - Bridlington Road on 22 June 2016. This inspection was carried out to check that improvements to meet legal requirements planned by the practice after our comprehensive inspection on 24 June 2015 had been made. We inspected the practice against four of the five questions we ask about services: is the service safe, effective, responsive to patient’s needs and well-led. This is because the service was not meeting some legal requirements.

The inspection was carried out by a CQC inspector with a dental specialist advisor.

Updated 5 July 2016

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this practice on 24 June 2015. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The practice was visited again on 22 July 2015 to confirm that improvements were underway. After the comprehensive inspection, the practice wrote to us to say what they would do to meet legal requirements in relation to the breaches.

We undertook this focused inspection to check that they had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for N Bloom & Associates - Bridlington Road on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

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

N Bloom & Associates - Bridlington Road is a dental practice in the Oxhey area of Watford, Hertfordshire.

The practice has three treatment rooms, a waiting area, and a multi-purpose room which houses X-ray machines and an autoclave (to sterilise dental instruments). It provides NHS and private treatment to adults and children.

The CQC inspected the practice on 24 June 2015 and again on 22 July 2015 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding safeguarding of vulnerable adults and children, infection control, safe use of X-rays, recognising and mitigating risk, supervision and training of staff, clinical audit, underperformance process and patient and staff feedback.

The principal dentist is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as an individual. 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.

Our key findings were:

• The practice met the essential standards in infection control and cleanliness documented in the Department of Health's: ‘Health Technical Memorandum 01-05 (HTM 01-05).

• All X-ray equipment had been serviced and tested in line with Ionising Radiation Regulations (IRR) 99 and Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulation (IR(ME)R) 2000.

• The practice had policies in place to aid the smooth running of the service, these were readily available for staff to reference, and in some cases were displayed in staff areas of the practice.

• Staff recruitment procedures met the requirements of Schedule 3 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

• Clinical and non- clinical audit was used to highlight areas of practice that could be improved.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Review the practice’s protocols for recording in the patients’ dental care records or elsewhere the reason for taking the X-ray and quality of the X-ray giving due regard to the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations (IR(ME)R) 2000.