Southampton Orthodontic Centre

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 21 June 2016 to ask the practice the following key questions;

Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

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 caring?

We found that this practice was providing caring services 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 regulation.

Background

Southampton Orthodontic Centre is a specialist dental practice that provides orthodontic treatment to children and some adults mainly on a referral basis (orthodontics is a specialist branch of dentistry concerned with the alignment of the teeth and jaws to improve the appearance of the face, the teethand their function).

Orthodontic treatment is provided under NHS regulations for children except when the problem falls below the accepted eligibility criteria for NHS treatment. Private treatment is available for these patients as well as adults who require orthodontic treatment. The practice employs one orthodontist, two orthodontic therapists, four dental nurses and two reception staff.

The practice operates from a commercial premises situated in Southampton City Centre and is based on the first floor. The practice has two dental treatment rooms of which one as an open planned area with three dental treatment chairs, and two separate decontamination rooms used for cleaning, sterilising and packing dental instruments.

The practice opens Monday to Friday between 9am and 5.30pm. Extended hours are available on Monday, Wednesdays and Thursdays until 7pm and two Saturday mornings a month.

There are arrangements in place to ensure patients receive urgent dental assistance when the practice is closed. This is provided by an out-of-hours service. If patients call the practice when it is closed, an answerphone message gives the telephone number patients should ring depending on their symptoms.

Dr Rupinder Sidhu is registered as an individual and is legally responsible for making sure that the practice meets the requirements relating to safety and quality of care, as specified in the regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

During our inspection we reviewed 11 CQC comment cards completed by patients and obtained the views of 21 patients on the day of our inspection.

The inspection was carried out by a lead inspector and a dental specialist adviser.

Our key findings were:

• We found that the practice ethos was to provide patient centred quality orthodontic care.

• Strong and effective leadership was provided by the practice owner and an empowered practice manager.

• Staff had been trained to handle emergencies and appropriate medicines and life-saving equipment was readily available in accordance with current guidelines.

• The practice appeared very clean and well maintained.

• Infection control procedures were robust and the practice followed published guidance.

• The practice had effective processes in place for safeguarding adults and children living in vulnerable circumstances.

• Staff reported incidents and kept records of these which the practice used for shared learning.

• The orthodontist and orthodontic therapists provided care in accordance with current professional guidelines.

• The practice had fully embraced the concept of skill mix to assist in the delivery of effective orthodontic care to patients.

• The service was aware of the needs of the local population and took these into account in how the practice was run.

• Staff recruitment files were organised.

• Staff received training appropriate to their roles and were supported in their continued professional development (CPD) by the practice owner and practice manager.

• Staff we spoke with felt well supported by the practice owner and practice manager and were committed to providing a quality service to their patients.

• Information from 11 completed Care Quality Commission (CQC) comment cards gave us a completely positive picture of a friendly, caring, professional and high quality service.

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

• Amend the practice's recruitment policy so that procedures are in line with Schedule 3 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, specifically by undertaking health assessment checks in respect of persons prior to employment at the practice.
• Review safeguarding training to ensure that staff receive training at Level 2 for clinical staff and Level 1 for administrative staff.
• Review the minutes of the staff meetings to ensure that they record learning from incidents and complaints and training received.
• Consider the use of privacy screens between each of the three dental chairs in the main treatment area.