Archived: Nechells Dental Clinic

We also found that recruitment procedures were not robust. There was no reference for one newly employed member of staff. Staff spoken with said that they had received mandatory training. However there was no documentary evidence to demonstrate this. We were told that this was because staff kept their training certificates at home. At the time we judged that this had a minor impact on patients who used the service. We set compliance actions and told the provider to improve.

The provider sent us an action plan following our visit which recorded the action taken to address the issues raised.

At this inspection we spoke with the practice manager and the senior dental nurse. We also met with a dentist. We saw that issues identified in our previous inspection had now been addressed by the practice.

During the inspection we spoke with seven people who used the service, comments included, "Its fine here 'bab' I have no problems at all getting an appointment" and, "They have been so good to me".

People were provided with information about the practice and the treatments they needed because there were information leaflets available and notices on display in the reception area. People also had treatment plans explaining their agreed dental care.

Infection control procedures were in place, but the checks of equipment were not always recorded and instruments were not always stamped with a use by date.

The provider was not able to demonstrate good recruitment practice, this meant that appropriate checks of staff had not been carried out and there was not always evidence available of staff qualifications or training. We saw that staff meetings and appraisal of staff was undertaken, but supervision of staff was undertaken informally and not recorded.

The provider had systems in place to gain feedback from people using the service. We saw that regular checks were undertaken to assess and monitor the service provided.