Easy Dental

We carried out this announced focussed inspection on 14 December 2021 under section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. We planned the inspection to check whether the registered provider was meeting the legal requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations. The inspection was led by a Care Quality Commission, (CQC), inspector who was supported by a specialist dental adviser.

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 well-led?

These questions form the framework for the areas we look at during the inspection.

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found this practice was not providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found this practice was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found this practice was not providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Background

Easy Dental is in Liverpool City Centre and provides private dental care and treatment for adults.

There is level access to the practice for people who use wheelchairs and those with pushchairs. Car parking spaces, including dedicated parking for people with disabilities, are available near the practice in a multi-storey car park. The practice is located close to Moorfields train station.

The dental team includes three dentists, three dental nurses, all of whom are trainees, one dental hygienist, a practice manager and two receptionists. The practice has three treatment rooms.

The practice is owned by a company and as a condition of registration must have a person registered with the CQC as the registered manager. Registered managers 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 registered manager at Easy Dental is the principal dentist.

During the inspection we spoke with two dentists, two dental nurses, and the receptionists. We looked at practice policies and procedures and other records about how the service is managed.

The practice is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 6:30pm and on Saturday from 9am to 4:30pm.

Our key findings were:

• The practice appeared to be visibly clean and well-maintained.
• The provider had infection control procedures which reflected published guidance. Further attention was required to systems in place for the management of Legionella risk and oversight of this.
• Staff knew how to deal with emergencies. Appropriate medicines and life-saving equipment were available, with the exception of some sizes of clear face masks.
• The provider had systems to help them manage risk to patients and staff. Some of these, including roles and responsibilities of the provider and individual staff, required review.
• The provider had safeguarding processes and staff knew their responsibilities for safeguarding vulnerable adults and children. We drew attention to the absence of key contact details within policies and fast access to these for use in a safeguarding emergency.
• The provider had staff recruitment procedures documented within policies which reflected current legislation. We observed these processes were not consistently followed.
• The clinical staff provided patients’ care and treatment in line with current guidelines.
• Staff treated patients with dignity and respect and took care to protect their privacy and personal information.
• Staff provided preventive care and supported patients to ensure better oral health.
• The appointment system took account of patients’ needs.
• The provider had effective leadership; processes for supporting continuous improvement could be strengthened.
• Staff felt involved and supported and worked as a team.
• The provider asked staff and patients for feedback about the services they provided.
• The provider dealt with complaints positively and efficiently.
• The provider had information governance arrangements.

We identified regulations the provider was not complying with.

• Care and treatment must be provided in a safe way for service users.

• Systems or processes must be established and operated effectively to ensure compliance with the requirements of the fundamental standards as set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014

Full details of the regulations the provider was not meeting are at the end of this report.