Archived: Windmill Dental Practice-Southwick

We reviewed this outcome in October 2013, looked at information we had asked the provider to send to us, and spoke with the dental nurse who had responsibility for infection control at the practice.

We saw that the provider had implemented systems of audit in line with the Health Technical Memorandum (HTM) 01-05: Decontamination in primary care dental practices guidelines. These guidelines from the Department of Health provided primary care dental services with best practice on cleaning processes of medical equipment.

The patients we spoke with told us they received good dental treatment from the dentists. One patient told us 'I'm very happy. I'm usually a bit of a coward with the dentist, but not this one'. Another patient told us 'I've no problems with the dentist, I'm happy'.

Staff we spoke with said that they had undertaken training for safeguarding vulnerable adults and children. We saw systems and information in place in respect to safeguarding. The practice also had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service provided, and to gain the views of the patients.

We saw that the overall appearance of the practice was clean and that appropriate cleaning systems and policies were in place. However, we found areas of non-compliance in respect to following appropriate government regulation with respect to infection control.