We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 12 October 2015 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 regulations.

Background

Avondale Dental Practice provides a wide range of preventative dental care. Treatment is available to NHS patients only. The staff structure consists of three dentists, a dental hygienist, three dental nurses, and a practice manager/receptionist.

The practice was open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. The practice was closed from 1pm to 2:00pm each day for lunch.

The practice is housed in a converted property across two floors. The reception and waiting area are on the ground floor with treatment rooms on both floors

There is a registered manager in place; a registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

We reviewed 21 comment cards that had been completed by patients and spoke with four patients on the day. All the comments we received were very positive about the service and patients felt that the staff were caring and took time to explain their treatment options and the costs involved. They used comments such as ‘first class service’ and ‘excellent’ to describe their experiences of the practice.

We also saw that patients completed the practices own survey and that the practice encouraged responses from family and friends survey. These results confirmed that overall patients were happy with the treatment received and would recommend the practice to others.

We found that this practice overall was providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Our key findings were:

• There were effective systems in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection.
• We found all treatment rooms well planned and equipped, with good lighting and ventilation.
• There were systems in place to check all equipment had been serviced regularly, including the air compressor, autoclave, fire extinguishers, oxygen cylinder and the X-ray equipment.
• We found the dentists regularly assessed each patient’s gum health and took X-rays at appropriate intervals.
• The practice ensured staff maintained the necessary skills and competence to support the needs of patients.
• The practice kept up to date with current guidelines and was led by a proactive management team.
• During our visit we observed staff were kind, caring, competent and put patients at their ease.

However there were areas where the provider should make improvements and should:

• Review staff recruitment records to ensure records are complete and all staff record information is kept in one place.
• Review the analysis of audits to document that audits are completed and any changes to practice clearly indicated.

We spoke with patients when we inspected who all commented they were very happy with the service. They all said they saw the dentist regularly and felt the care they received was excellent.

They confirmed that the dentist always explained what they were doing, what they had found during examination and what the treatment options were. They confirmed they had received information to enable them to decide upon treatment options.

Patients confirmed that the practice appeared very clean and staff always wore protective equipment when treating them. Feedback received from patients during the inspection and review of patient satisfaction surveys confirm that patients are happy with the service they receive.