CQC Publish Guidance to Dental Providers

In April 2015 the CQC started a programme of inspection of all primary care dental providers using a revised methodology.  Since then over 1000 inspections reports have been published (covering 967 dental practices).

Out of 967 practices assessed only 93 had regulatory breaches associated with them.  Enforcement action has been taken against eight dental providers.

John Milne, CQC Senior National Dental Adviser commented “Our first year shows that our inspection approach works well. We’re pleased to find that most dental practices are safe, but if we find poor or unsafe care, we will take action.”

The two most common breaches of regulations were of Regulation 12 (safe care and treatment) and Regulation 17 (good governance). Regulation 12 is mapped to the key question ‘are services safe?’ and accounted for 45% of the breaches. Regulation 17 is mapped to the key question ‘are services well-led? and made up 82% of breaches.

Areas of repeated concern included:

·         managing complaints and concerns

·         completing appropriate risk assessments

·         incomplete or out of date dental care records

·         supervision, support and staff training

·         infection prevention and control

·         medicines and equipment to deal with medical emergencies

·         incomplete recruitment checks when employing staff.

All the practices re-inspected so far have made the necessary improvements.

To encourage improvement and share good practice, the CQC has now published some examples of notable practice found on inspection – click here to view online.