Survey forms were available on the reception desk and responses given were overall very positive across all areas of the service. We saw examples of how comments made by patients had been listened to and used to improve the service. Information leaflets were available for patients. These gave details of the staff working at the practice, the services that were available, details of emergency dental services, arrangements for private treatment, and the practice’s complaints procedure. Time was set aside each day to accommodate patients requiring an urgent appointment.

Patient records were kept electronically. They contained all the relevant clinical information Patients were able to go through the details of proposed treatments with the dentist using computer software. The surgery had procedures and equipment in place for dealing with emergencies. There was a separate decontamination room for cleaning and disinfecting dental instruments. An infection control audit in March 2012 returned a score of 98%.

We saw that staff meetings were held monthly and a whole range of topics was discussed. Staff received annual training about dealing with medical emergencies. The practice manager was able to show us information about courses staff had attended but this was not recorded in any systematic way. The provider told us that individual staff supervision was done informally, but there were no records to support this.