Updated 27 September 2021
We undertook a focused inspection of Hitchin Dental Centre on 17 September 2021. 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 previously undertaken a comprehensive inspection 4 May 2021 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 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 Centre on our website www.cqc.org.uk.
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 inspection we asked:
- Is it well-led?
Background
Hitchin Dental Centre is a well-established practice that offers both private and NHS treatment to patients. It is based in Hitchin and has four treatment rooms. The dental team includes four dentists, five dental nurses, a dental hygienist and reception staff. The practice is a referral centre for endodontics, prosthodontics and periodontics.
The practice is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5.30pm.
The practice is owned by an individual who is the principal dentist. They have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the practice is run.
On the day of inspection, we spoke the practice manager. We looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed.
Our findings were:
- We found this practice was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Key findings
The provider had made good improvements in relation to the regulatory breach we found at our previous inspection. These must now be embedded in the practice and sustained in the long-term.