Woodlane Dental Practice

We undertook a follow up focused inspection of Woodlane Dental Practice on 3 September 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 Woodlane Dental Practice on 23 November 2017 and a focused inspection on 24 May 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 reports of that inspection by selecting the 'all reports' link for Woodlane dental practice on our website www.cqc.org.uk.

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 breaches we found at our inspections on 23 November 2017 and 24 May 2018.

Background

Woodlane Dental Practice is in Dagenham in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and provides NHS and private treatment to adults and children. The practice is located on the ground floor of a purpose adapted premises. The practice has one treatment room. The practice is conveniently located close to public transport links.

The dental team includes the principal dentist who owns the dental practice, one dentist, two trainee dental nurses and a receptionist. The practice has one treatment room.

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, one trainee dental nurse and the receptionist. We looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed.

The practice is open between 9am and 5.30pm on Mondays to Fridays.

Our key findings were:

• The practice had arrangements to report, investigate, respond and learn from accidents, incidents and significant events.

• The practice had safeguarding processes and procedures. Staff had undertaken training and staff were clear about their responsibilities for safeguarding adults and children.

• There were arrangements to protect patients and staff from accidental exposure to substances which may be hazardous to health such as cleaning and other materials.

• Staff knew how to deal with emergencies and the proper use and storage of emergency medicines and equipment. There were arrangements to ensure that medicines and equipment were available for use and within their expiry date.

• The practice had systems to help them assess and manage risk. These were in line with current guidance and legislation. Risks associated with the use of dental sharps, substances that may be hazardous to health, fire and infection control and Legionella were assessed and there were arrangements in place to minimise the risks to patients and staff.

We carried out a focused inspection of Woodlane Dental Practice on 24 May 2018.

The inspection was led by a CQC inspector who was supported by a specialist dental adviser.

We carried out the inspection to follow up concerns we originally identified during a comprehensive inspection at this practice on 22 November 2017 under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions.

At a comprehensive inspection we always ask the following five questions to get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

When one or more of the five questions is 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 areas where improvement was required.

At the previous comprehensive inspection we found the registered provider was providing safe, effective, caring and responsive care in accordance with relevant regulations. We judged the practice was not providing well-led care in accordance with Regulation 17 and Regulation 18 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 Woodlane Dental Practice on our website www.cqc.org.uk.

We also reviewed the key questions of safe and effective as we had made recommendations for the provider relating to these key questions.

We noted that the majority of improvements had not been made.

Our findings were:

Are services well-led?

We found this practice was not providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

The provider had not made improvements to put right the shortfalls and deal with the regulatory breaches we found at our inspection on 22 November 2017.

We have told the provider to take action (see full details of this action in the Enforcement Actions section at the end of this report).

We identified regulations the provider was not meeting. They must:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

• Ensure persons employed in the provision of the regulated activity receive the appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal necessary to enable them to carry out the duties.

The Commission is considering its range of enforcement powers to secure improvements.