We carried out this announced inspection on 9 July 2018 under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. We planned the inspection to check whether the registered provider was meeting the legal requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations. The inspection was led by a CQC inspector who was supported by a specialist dental adviser.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?

• Is it effective?

• Is it caring?

• Is it responsive to people’s needs?

• Is it well-led?

These questions form the framework for the areas we look at during the inspection.

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

Park Dental Care Limited is in Sheffield and provides NHS and private treatment to adults and children.

There is ramp access for people who use wheelchairs and those with pushchairs. Car parking spaces, including one for blue badge holders, are available at the practice.

The dental team includes five dentists, two dental hygiene therapists and 11 dental nurses; one of whom is a senior dental nurse, three are senior receptionists/dental nurses and one is a trainee dental nurse. The practice is also supported by a visiting dentist who provides dental implants. The practice has six treatment rooms.

The practice is owned by a company and as a condition of registration must have a person registered with the Care Quality Commission as the registered manager. Registered managers have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the practice is run. The registered manager at Park Dental Care is the practice manager.

On the day of inspection we collected 26 CQC comment cards filled in by patients.

During the inspection we spoke with four dentists, four dental nurses and the practice manager. We looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed.

The practice is open:

Monday to Thursday 9am - 6pm

Friday 9am - 2.30pm

Our key findings were:

• The practice appeared clean and well maintained.
• The provider had infection control procedures which reflected published guidance.
• Staff knew how to deal with emergencies. Appropriate medicines and life-saving equipment were available.
• The practice had systems to help them manage risk to patients and staff.
• The practice staff had suitable safeguarding processes and staff knew their responsibilities for safeguarding vulnerable adults and children.
• The provider had thorough staff recruitment procedures.
• The clinical staff provided patients’ care and treatment in line with current guidelines.
• Staff treated patients with dignity and respect and took care to protect their privacy and personal information.
• The provider was providing preventive care and supporting patients to ensure better oral health.
• The appointment system met patients’ needs.
• The practice had effective leadership and culture of continuous improvement.
• Staff felt involved and supported and worked well as a team.
• The practice asked staff and patients for feedback about the services they provided.
• The provider dealt with complaints positively and efficiently.
• The provider had suitable information governance arrangements.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements. They should:

• Review the layout of the practice’s decontamination room taking into account the guidelines issued by the Department of Health in the Health Technical Memorandum 01-05: Decontamination in primary care dental practices, and having regard to The Health and Social Care Act 2008: ‘Code of Practice about the prevention and control of infections and related guidance’.

Information about people's experience of Park Dental Care Limited was gained by speaking with six people attending the practice on the day of our inspection and by speaking with six members of staff. We also reviewed the records of four people receiving treatment at the practice and reviewed a range of other relevant documents.

Each person spoken with told us that dentists within the practice explained the care and treatment options available to them together with the costs of these. One person said that their dentist was, "professional," and "very good" at explaining treatment options. People told us that their privacy and dignity was taken into consideration by all staff at the practice. One person said, "if any questions need to be asked then this is done privately."

People were positive about the care, treatment and support they received from the practice. One person said, "I can't fault anything about the service or any of the staff at all."

People told us that the practice was always clean. One person said, "the cleanliness is perfect." Our observations and our review of records demonstrated that people received care and treatment in a clean environment with measures in place to minimise the risk of infection.

The provider had a satisfactory recruitment and selection procedure in place to ensure that staff were appropriately employed. We found that there were effective systems to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received.