Archived: Midland Smile Centres - Handsworth

Updated 4 August 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the practice was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

We carried out an announced, follow-up inspection on 5 July 2016. The inspection team consisted of a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspector with remote access to a dental specialist advisor.

During the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of the practice on 30 January 2015 it was identified there were concerns with regard to incident management, the maintenance of emergency equipment, staff training and recruitment. The provider had not met their legal obligations with regard to Regulations 12 and 19 of the Health and Social Care Act (Regulated Activities) 2014. As a result requirement notices were issued.

On 21 July 2015 the provider sent an action plan to CQC identifying the actions they would take to meet the requirements identified. This included a timescale for implementing those actions.

Updated 4 August 2016

We carried out a focussed follow-up inspection on 5 July 2016 to check the practice had achieved compliance following our inspection of 30 January 2015. We concentrated on the following key question: Are services safe?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

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

Our key findings were:

• Patients could be assured the practice was carrying out robust recruitment checks on new members of staff.
• The practice had the necessary equipment for staff to deal with medical emergencies, and staff had been trained how to use that equipment. This included an automated external defibrillator, oxygen and emergency medicines.
• There were systems in place to record accidents, significant events and complaints, and where learning points were identified these were shared with staff.
• There was a comprehensive business continuity plan to help staff if an emergency occurred such as a failure in the electricity supply.
• The practice had a lead person for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. All staff had received relevant training in safeguarding to help protect patients.

Staff were flushing dental waterlines to prevent bacterial growth and risk to patients.