Updated 2 December 2020
We undertook a follow up focused inspection of St Clements City Dental Care on 29 October 2020. This inspection was carried out to review in detail the actions taken by the registered provider to improve the quality of care following our comprehensive inspection on 11 March 2019 and to confirm that the practice was now meeting legal requirements.
Prior to our site visit we asked the provider to send us evidence of the improvements they had implemented. This allowed us to carry out a shorter site visit when we confirmed the required improvements to the service had been made.
The inspection was led by a CQC inspector who had remote access to a specialist dental adviser.
We undertook a comprehensive inspection of St Clements City Dental Care on 11 March 2019 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 safe or well led care and was in breach of Regulation 12: Safe care and treatment, Regulation 16: Receiving and acting on complaints, Regulation 17: Good governance and Regulation 18: Staffing 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 St Clements City Dental Care on our website www.cqc.org.uk.
As part of this inspection we asked:
• Is it safe?
• Is it well-led?
When one or more of the five questions are not met we require the service to make improvements. We then inspect again after a reasonable interval, focusing on the areas where improvement was required.
Our findings were:
Are services safe?
We found this practice was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
The provider had made improvements in relation to the regulatory breach we found at our inspection on 11 March 2019.
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 found at our inspection on 11 March 2019.
Background
St Clements City Dental Care is located in Farringdon, in the London Borough of Islington. The practice provides private treatment to adults and children. There is level access for people who use wheelchairs and those with pushchairs.
The dental team includes three dentists, three trainee dental nurses, and a practice manager. The trainee dental nurses and manager undertake receptionist duties. 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 St Clements City Dental Care is the principal dentist.
The practice normal opening hours are between
9am and 8pm on Mondays to Thursdays and
9am to 5pm on Fridays.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic and in line with current guidelines only pre-booked appointments are available and there may be some alterations to opening times. To help keep people safe additional measures are in place when attending the practice.
Our key findings were:
- The provider had improved the governance systems to help them manage risks to patients and staff in relation to staff recruitment and training procedures, carrying out clinical audits, and managing complaints.
- The provider had suitable arrangements to manage and deal with medical and other emergencies.
- The provider had established a suitable protocol for monitoring outgoing referrals.
- The provider had arrangements for patients with enhanced needs, such as wheelchair users, in line with a Disability Access audit.
- The provider had infection control procedures which reflected published guidance.
- The provider had improved the systems for the maintenance and upkeep of equipment and the premises.
- There were suitable arrangements to assess and mitigate fire risks in line with a risk assessment.
- There were suitable systems to assess mitigate the risks in relation to Legionella.
- There were suitable systems for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH).