We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 15 December 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 this practice was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services effective?

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

Are services caring?

We found this practice was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services responsive?

We found this practice was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services well-led?

We found this practice was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Background

Taunton Endodontics practice is housed in a grade II listed building on The Crescent, Taunton. The specialist services provided are wholly private and fees are displayed on the practice website. The practice has been the recent subject of a complete, ground up, purpose conversion, providing all the facilities required in a modern dental practice including state of the art digital radiographic equipment, operating microscope and other comprehensive specialist equipment including a 3D cone beam CT scanner (CBCT). Parking is available at the rear of the practice.

The practice has one treatment room, a waiting area and a local decontamination unit. The waiting room and treatment room are on the ground floor of the premises.

The practice has a principal dentist / provider David Langham who is also the registered manager. 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.

The practice is open Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 1.00pm, 2.00pm to 5.00pm and is closed at weekends. For emergency and out of hours assistance contact information is available from the practice telephone answering service.

We reviewed 18 CQC comment cards that had been left for patients to complete, prior to our visit, about the services provided. Due to the specialist and complex nature of the service and the provider being a single handed dentist there were no patients to speak with on the day of inspection. Feedback from patients was positive about the care they received from the practice. They commented staff put them at ease, listened to their concerns and provided an excellent service in which they had confidence in the dental care provided.

Our key findings were:

• There were effective systems in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection.
• The treatment room was well organised and equipped, with good light 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.
• The practice carried out oral health assessments and planned treatment in line with current best practice guidance, for example from UCL Eastman Dental Institute the leading provider of these specialist services Patient dental care records were detailed and showed monitoring of patients’ oral health.
• There were systems in place to help ensure the safety of staff and patients. These included safeguarding children and adults from abuse, maintaining the required standards of infection prevention and control and responding to medical emergencies.
• Staff maintained the necessary skills and competence to support the needs of patients.

• Staff were up to date with current guidelines and the practice was led by a proactive principal dentist / provider.

• Staff were kind, caring, competent and put patients at their ease.

• Patients commented they felt involved in their treatment and that it was fully explained to them. Common themes from the CQC comment cards were patients felt they received very good care in a clean environment from a helpful practice team.

• The dental practice had effective clinical governance and risk management processes in place; including health and safety and the management of medical emergencies.
• The practice had a comprehensive system to monitor and continually improve the quality of the service; including through a detailed programme of clinical and non-clinical audits.