General Dental Practice Inspections Annual Report 2016-17

This is our third annual report relating to the work we have done inspecting General Dental Practices across Wales. This report summarise the findings from our inspections during 2016-17 and to highlight the areas for improvement and areas of good practice we have identified across services.

During 2016-17, we undertook a total of 80 dental practice inspections. 75 inspections to dental practices we had  ot visited previously and five follow up inspections to previously inspected services that we continued to have concerns about.

What practices did well:

• The standards and compliance in three practices we visited was considered to be so high that no recommendations for improvement were made. 
• Feedback from patients was positive, with patients telling us that they were happy with the care received from the dental teams treating them. 
• Practices were broadly aware of their obligations and the relevant guidelines surrounding decontamination and infection control within dentistry. 
• Practices had a range of systems in place (although sometimes benefiting from improvement) to ensure that as far as possible the required standards were being adhered to. 
• Practices and individual dentists were also broadly aware of the regulations and standards surrounding the safe use of radiographic equipment and had systems in place to support them to use this safely. 

What practices need to improve: 

• Arrangements for the effective management of staff in the dental team to ensure that records relating to their employment were complete and up to date. 
• Ensuring that there are sufficient systems in place to maintain emergency kits that are complete, in date and ready to use safely in the event of a patient collapse. 
• Ensuring that complaints policies and procedures are made clear to patients and take account of the relevant regulations and standards. 
• Arrangements for ensuring that throughout a practice infection control and compliance with decontamination quality standards is adhered to.