Care Quality Commission
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CQC inspectors publish reports on two dental practices in England

The Care Quality Commission has yesterday published reports on the quality of care provided by two dental practices in England.

The practices were inspected under CQC’s new approach to inspecting dental services which launched in April 2015.

The practices that we have reported on yesterday are:

  • Barrow Street Dental Practices, St Helens
  • Dentistry For You, Southend

Full reports on the two inspections are available on this website.

CQC’s new approach to inspecting dental services:

CQC’s new approach to inspecting dental services uses specially trained dental inspectors, accompanied by specialist advisors who are usually qualified dentists or dental care professionals. Similarly to the other health and social care sectors inspected by CQC, dental reports describe whether services provided are safe, effective, caring, responsive to patient need and well led. Our inspections check that practices are meeting the fundamental standards regulations that came into force on 1 April 2015.

Over the next 12 months, CQC plans to inspect 10 per cent of England’s 10,000 dental practices. Unlike most other regulated sectors, primary care dental services will not be given a rating in 2015/16.

Prof Steve Field, Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services, said: "We know that the quality of care provided by most dentists is of an acceptable standard, and that is reflected in the reports we have published so far under our new approach.

"If we find that a dental practice is failing to meet the required standard - we will expect them to provide us with a full plan setting out how they will address the issue, and we will return to check that they have made the required improvements.

“However good the general picture, we cannot be complacent. In the first years of inspection, CQC did identify some examples of unacceptable standards of care. Our main priority must be to ensure that we protect the public from unsafe care by continuing to inspect against the regulations and taking action if we identify any concerns."p

For media enquiries about the Care Quality Commission, please call the press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours. Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here (please note: the duty press officer is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters). For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.

Notes to editors

For primary care dental services, our approach to inspecting and regulating will assess whether or not a provider is meeting the new Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, which include the new fundamental standards.

The services that CQC select for inspection will include practices that present a risk or concern raised by the public or other stakeholders, alongside a random selection of practices, including many already providing high quality services for the public.

We have published our provider handbook for dental services, including the Key Lines of Enquiry used by inspectors on inspection, on our website.

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.

We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.

 

Channel website: http://www.cqc.org.uk/

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