The Care Quality Commission published reports on the quality of care provided by 20 dental practices in England last week.
The practices that we have reported on are:
- Bradley and Partners, Canterbury and Coastal
- Clifton Garden Dental Surgery, East Riding of Yorkshire
- Eastgate Dental Centre, Aylesbury Vale
- Eastside Dental Practice, Tower Hamlets
- Fair Oak Dental Practice, West Hampshire
- Fartown Dental Practice - Huddersfield, Greater Huddersfield
- Gencare Dental Clinic - Tickhill, Doncaster
- Grange Green Dental Practice, Basildon and Brentwood
- Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
- Hampshire Dentists in Southampton, Southampton
- IDH Dorking, Surrey Downs
- Mr Pravinkumar P Nana - Winlaton, Newcastle Gateshead
- My Dental Surgery - Kenton Road, Brent
- Mydentist - Victoria Street - Staple Hill, South Gloucestershire
- Northstreet Dental & Aesthetic Practice, South Eastern Hampshire
- Octagon Orthodontics, Ealing
- Park Dental Practice, Bury
- The Corner House Dental Practice, Horsham and Mid Sussex
- The Dental Surgery, South Tyneside
- Wathen Road Dental Practice, Surrey Downs
CQC’s new approach to inspecting dental services:
CQC’s approach to inspecting dental services uses specially trained dental inspectors, accompanied by specialist advisors who are usually qualified dentists or dental care professionals. Similarly to the other health and social care sectors inspected by CQC, dental reports describe whether services provided are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. Our inspections check that practices are meeting the fundamental standards and regulations that came into force on 1 April 2015.
CQC plans to inspect 10 per cent of England’s 10,000 dental practices. Unlike most other regulated sectors, primary care dental services will not be given a rating.
Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of General Practice (Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care Directorate), said:
"We know that the quality of care provided by most dentists is of an acceptable standard, and that is reflected in the reports we have published so far under our approach
"If we find that a dental practice is failing to meet the required standard - we will expect them to provide us with a full plan setting out how they will address the issue, and we will return to check that they have made the required improvements.
“However good the general picture, we cannot be complacent. In the first years of inspection, CQC did identify some examples of unacceptable standards of care. Our main priority must be to ensure that we protect the public from unsafe care by continuing to inspect against the regulations and taking action that encourages improvement if we identify any concerns."
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