Updated 2 July 2020
We undertook a follow-up desk-based, focused inspection of Cheshire Dental Centre on 16 June 2020. The inspection was carried out to review in detail the actions taken by the provider to improve the quality of care, and to confirm whether the practice was now meeting legal requirements.
The inspection was led by a CQC inspector with remote access to a specialist dental adviser.
We undertook a comprehensive inspection of Cheshire Dental Centre on 30 January 2020 under section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. At a comprehensive inspection we always ask the following five questions to get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment:
• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive?
• Is it well-led?
We found the provider was not providing well-led care and was in breach of regulations 17 and 19 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 Cheshire Dental Centre on our website www.cqc.org.uk
When one or more of the five questions are not met, we require the provider to make improvements and send us an action plan. We then inspect again after a reasonable interval, focusing on the areas in which improvement was necessary.
As part of this inspection we asked:
• Is it well-led?
Our findings were:
Are services well-led?
We found this practice was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
The provider had made improvements in relation to the regulatory breaches we identified at our inspection on 30 January 2020.
Background
Cheshire Dental Centre is near the centre of Crewe and provides NHS and private dental care for adults and children.
There is level access to the practice for people who use wheelchairs and for people with pushchairs. The provider had installed a ramp to facilitate access to the practice for wheelchairs and pushchairs.
Car parking is available outside the practice.
The dental team includes three dentists, a dental hygiene therapist, and four dental nurses, one of whom is a trainee. The dental team is supported by a practice manager. The practice has three treatment rooms.
The practice is owned by an individual who is the principal dentist there. They have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations.
As part of this desk-based inspection we reviewed the provider’s action plan and evidence sent to us to support the action plan.
The practice is open:
Monday 10.30am to 7.00pm
Tuesday and Thursday 9.00am to 5.30pm
Wednesday 11.00am to 8.00pm
Friday 9.00am to 4.00pm.
Our key findings were:
- The provider had acted to further reduce risks from fire at the practice.
- The practice’s recruitment procedures had been improved and checklists were in use to ensure pre-employment checks were carried out and the required information obtained
- The provider had improved their systems to support governance in the practice, including in relation to quality assurance testing for X-ray equipment, investigating and learning from significant events, and monitoring safety alerts.