Luton Arches Dental

Updated 26 January 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the practice was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

The focused inspection was carried out on 15 November 2016 by a lead CQC inspector who had remote access to a dental specialist advisor. We received an action plan from the provider and evidence of actions taken to address the breaches of regulation found at the last inspection.

During the inspection we spoke with the registered manager, the dental nurses and the associate dentist. We did not speak with any patients on this occasion. We looked around the premises and the treatment rooms. We reviewed a range of policies and procedures and other documents including, staff documents, X-ray documents, staff training records, risk assessments and adherence to HTM01-05 guidance.

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 therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 26 January 2017

We carried out an announced focused inspection on 15 November 2016 to follow up on a previous inspection carried out on 25 May 2016 to ask the questions, are services safe?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

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

Background

We inspected the practice on 25 May 2016 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding Regulation 12 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 Safe care and treatment. We checked these breaches as part of the focused inspection on 15 November 2016.

The practice provides dental services to both adults and children. The practice provides mostly NHS treatment (90%). Services provided include general dentistry, dental hygiene, crowns and bridges, and root canal treatment. Patients also have the option of private treatment options such as implants and cosmetic dentistry.

The practice’s opening hours are – Monday 9am to 6pm, Tuesday 8.30am to 6pm, Wednesday 8.30am to 8pm, Thursday 8.30am to 5.30pm and Saturday by appointment only.

Access for urgent treatment outside of opening hours is by telephoning the practice and following the instructions on the answerphone message or by telephoning the 111 NHS service.

The principal dentist/owner is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as an individual. 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 has three dentists one of which is a first year foundation training dentist; one qualified dental nurse, three student nurses, two receptionists, and a practice manager.

Our key findings were:

• The treatment rooms were visibly clean and tidy, and had defined clean and dirty zones.
• The building had been maintained to a suitable standard for a dental practice.
• The practice carried out radiography practices in line with current regulations.
• The practice followed the relevant guidance from the Department of Health's: ‘Health Technical Memorandum 01-05 (HTM 01-05) for infection control with regard to cleaning and sterilizing dental instruments.
• Portable appliance testing had been carried out
• The practice had a full and comprehensive Control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) folder and staff were aware of its contents.
• All staff had completed Mental Capacity Act training