We spoke with two patients of City Health Care Partnership Cottingham clinic dental practice. Patients indicated that they were satisfied with the service overall. For example one patient told us “They have been lovely. Staff have worked at my pace”.

We met with the dentist and dental nurses, one of whom was also the infection control and decontamination lead on the day of our visit. They confirmed that their priority was to give a high quality dental service whilst putting the patient’s needs at the centre of their care and treatment.

Patients told us that they were given appropriate information and advice regarding their treatment needs and any associated costs so that they could make an informed decision about their treatment. We saw patient records which showed that each patient had a comprehensive assessment of their dental health needs and a plan of treatment. Each patient had been asked their consent to treatment and had signed their agreement.

We saw that patients were protected from harm, through the safe recruitment of staff, staff training and effective risk assessment. Staff at the practice told us they were confident they would know the action to take if they had any safeguarding concerns regarding patients who attended the surgery.

The practice was clean and hygienic and we saw that infection control procedures were in place to ensure patients were protected from the risk of infection.

The service had an effective system to regularly assess the quality of its service. For example, we saw there were regular audits of clinical practice and that the provider collated feedback from patients.

We saw the practice had a complaints policy that was made available to patients. Complaints were handled centrally by the provider.