Updated 13 October 2020
We undertook a desk-based review of Hitchin Dental Practice on 5 October 2020. This was carried out to review the actions taken by the registered provider to improve the quality of care and to confirm that the practice was now meeting legal requirements.
We had undertaken a comprehensive inspection on 3 March 2020 under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. We found the registered provider was not providing safe or well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can read our report of that inspection by selecting the 'all reports' link for Hitchin Dental Practice on our website .
When one or more of the five questions are not met we require the service to make improvements and send us an action plan. We then inspect again after a reasonable interval, focusing on the areas where improvement was required.
As part of this review we asked:
- Is it safe
- Is it well-led
Background
Hitchin Dental is a well-established practice that offers both private and NHS treatment to about 2,500 patients. The dental team consists of a dentist, a dental nurse, a hygienist and a receptionist. There are three treatment rooms. The practice opens on Mondays to Thursdays from 9 am to 5 pm, and on Fridays from 9 am to 3 pm. There is no level access for wheelchair users. Parking is available on streets nearby.
The practice is owned by an individual who is the dentist there. He has legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the practice is run.
Our findings were:
- We found this practice was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
- We found this practice was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations
Key findings
The provider had made sufficient improvements in relation to the regulatory breaches we found at our previous inspection. These must now be embedded in the practice and sustained in the long-term.