29 April 2014
During an inspection looking at part of the service
We went through the improvement plan submitted by the provider. We found that building work had been completed to close an opening between treatment rooms that were previously separated by a sliding door. This meant that any treatment and consultation conversations between patient and dentist could not be overheard by people in the adjacent treatment room.
To address the issues around patient privacy and confidentiality, the practice manager had conducted a review of the times that each treatment room was used each day. This resulted in a number of time slots, available on each day, which could be used by reception staff to offer patients more private conversations when they registered with the practice, or if patients wished to give details of pre-existing health conditions. It also gave staff the space and time to offer support to people in completion of registration forms, or to explain any steps patients had to follow before or after treatment. We were able to observe staff utilising the treatment rooms for this purpose on the day of our visit. This demonstrated the practice had been responsive when addressing concerns some patients had raised about confidentiality.