We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 3 February 2016 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.

Are services effective?

We found that this practice was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant.

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

St Crispin’s Dental Practice is a general dental practice that was opened in 2011 in the newly developed area of Northampton called St Crispin's. It is situated in a converted stable block, and is a single story practice.

The practice has three treatment rooms and offers NHS and private general dental treatment to adults and children.

The practice is part of a group of two dental practices located within two miles of each other, and has a principal dentist on site, although the registered manager works predominantly at the sister practice to this one.

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.

Prior to the inspection we left Care Quality Commission comment cards and asked patients for feedback on the service. In addition we spoke to patients on the day of our visit. In total 27 people provided feedback about the service.

The feedback we received was entirely positive with patients commenting on the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff.

Our key findings were:

• Patients commented that the service was prompt and efficient, and staff were professional and polite.

• Essential standards in decontamination as outlined in the ‘Health Technical Memorandum 01-05 (HTM 01-05): Decontamination in primary care dental practices.’ published by the Department of Health were exceeded.

• The provider had emergency medicines in line with the British National Formulary (BNF) guidance for medical emergencies in dental practice.

• The practice had monthly team meetings to discuss the running of the practice, any complaints and learning opportunities.

• Governance arrangements were in place for the smooth running for the practice, including the use of clinical audit to highlight areas that could be improved.

• Staff recruitment checks had been carried out in accordance with schedule three of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. Disclosure and barring service checks had been carried out on all staff to ensure the practice employed fit and proper persons.

• Staff demonstrated a good knowledge of how to raise a safeguarding concern, and the situation in which that may be required.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Review availability of equipment to manage medical emergencies giving due regard to guidelines issued by the Resuscitation Council (UK), and the General Dental Council (GDC) standards for the dental team.

• Consider the use of patient information leaflets to aid the process of consent and oral health promotion.

• Consider improved access for the staff to the governance information for this practice.

• Review the practice’s protocols for signing, dating and logging the location of sharps bins.

We spoke with people who use the service and they told us they were extremely happy with the practice. One person told us they had moved to St Crispin dental practice after a bad experience at another practice and that the dentist had made them feel at ease and they felt valued. We found some concerns in relation to record keeping at the practice.