Archived: Pennine Dental and Medical Care

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

We found this practice was not providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

The provider had made insufficient improvements to put right the shortfalls and had not responded to the regulatory breaches we found at our inspection on 14 November 2025. We have told the provider to take action. We will be following up on our concerns to ensure the provider has made the required improvements.

Find out what we look at when we assess this area in our information about our new Single assessment framework.

The judgement for Assessing needs is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.

During the inspection on 14 November 2025, we found that staff did not consistently keep up to date with current evidence-based practice, and did not always have the skills, knowledge, or experience required to carry out their roles. The practice principal was not aware of the typical symptoms of sepsis or their responsibilities under Duty of Candour. Additionally, despite being the only clinician currently working at the practice, they demonstrated a poor understanding of the management of medical emergencies and insufficient knowledge of relevant infection prevention and control guidance. We did not receive a response to our subsequent information request and no information or documentary evidence was made available during the follow up inspection on 13 February 2026 to demonstrate that improvements made in relation to staff knowledge and understanding of evidence based and role-specific clinical guidance. As a result, we were unable to obtain assurance that these concerns had been adequately addressed.

During the inspection on 14 November 2025, we found that it was not possible to clearly differentiate between clinicians within the clinical records, as all entries in the clinical software were made under the same login. The inability to identify which clinician performed specific treatment undermines continuity of care, audit, complaint handling and safeguarding. Following the inspection, the provider told us that individual logins would be created for each clinician. However, during the follow up inspection on 13 February 2026, we were unable to obtain assurance that these changes had been actioned and implemented.

During the inspection on 14 November 2025, the provider told us patients were referred to primary and secondary care specialists for treatment the practice did not provide. This included referring patients with suspected cancer under the national faster diagnosis pathways. However, evidence of referrals made and a log to monitor these referrals were not available for review. During the follow up inspection on 13 February 2026, we were unable to obtain assurance that effective systems had been implemented and embedded to ensure that that referrals were received by the intended recipients and acted on in a timely manner, particularly for urgent referrals.

The judgement for How staff, teams and services work together is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.

The judgement for Supporting people to live healthier lives is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.

The judgement for Monitoring and improving outcomes is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.

The judgement for Consent to care and treatment is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.