Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

What is the difference between Frank Taylor and Associates and a dental agent? • When we do a totally independent valuation you can rely on and the agent doesn’t. • When we market your property to all of our registered 2000 plus potential purchasers and the agent doesn’t. • When we only ever act for the Vendor and the agent doesn’t. • When we never accept an undisclosed fee from the purchaser and the agent does. Tel: 08456 123 434 01707 653 260 www.ft-associates.com peakingrankly S W hen I graduated in the late 70s I could have literally walked out of dental school and set up a new National Health Ser- vice (NHS) practice in the back room of my house, if I had one. All I needed was a Family Practitioner Committee (FPC) number, a quick chat with the local Planning Department (or I could have kept quiet, as the chap who owned the practice I bought in the early 1980s had done in the 1950s), some professional indemnity insurance, oh, and a nurse and a receptionist. Maybe the privately educated but not too bright daughter of the local farmer fancies trying her hand at nursing. Finding a recep- tionist shouldn’t be too much of a problem, after all what can be so hard about answer- ing the telephone, making ap- pointments and taking a bit of money from the patients? The Dental Practice Board (DPB) will send one of their Dental Officers around to give the place the once over, make sure I’ve got enough of everything, and that the surgery and wait- ing room (the hallway at the back of the house) are nicely decorated. Hopefully the NHS, the FPC and the DPB wouldn’t bother me again. As long as I kept out of trouble and stayed on the General Dental Council (GDC) dental register, I would never have to open another dental book or journal ever again. My nicely spoken nurse would never have to trouble herself with keeping up-to- date or passing exams. Yes, the next 35-40 years until I retired were going to be just dandy, or so I thought. That’s how it was for den- tists a generation ago, but oh my, how things have changed: bit-by-bit, dentistry has slowly been coming under the ‘con- trol’ of various regulatory bodies. Health and safety leg- islation, disability discrimi- nation, clinical governance, and the annual complaints audit all crept in. Initially, only dentists, hygienists and thera- pists had to be on the GDC register, but now dental nurses and technicians (DCPs) also have to be registered. Eve- ryone now has to undertake continuing professional devel- opment (CPD). And so it went on; more regulations, more ac- countability, more paperwork, and inevitably, more cost. Now it seems that dentists and their practices have the daddy of all regulations and regulators watching over their every move, namely the Care Quality Commission (CQC). As I am no longer in practice I don’t have to dance to CQC’s tune, but curiosity has got the better of me, and so I read ‘Essential standards of Qual- ity and Safety’, which made me think about how I would have ‘managed’ CQC in my practice. I think at the outset it is im- portant to separate what CQC is trying to achieve from how it is going about it. The improve- ment in the quality of dental practices, both NHS and pri- vate, and the safety of patients are central to what CQC is try- ing to achieve. I don’t think anyone can argue against CQC’s goals. The first stage in the CQC process is that practices have to register with CQC and de- clare that they comply with a number of items. My practice was a British Dental Associa- tion (BDA) Good Practice so I think we would have been well placed to comply with CQC. As the BDA itself states: The Care Quality Commis- sion (CQC) has accepted that membership of the Scheme is a reliable indication that the practice is using a QA frame- work. Practices meeting the Scheme standard should be well positioned for meeting CQC compliance. If we were not a BDA Good Practice or a member of any other compliance scheme, then I think that my prac- tice manager and myself, and the team would have our work cut out. CQC compliance involves the whole team, and so eve- ryone at my practice would be made aware of CQC from the outset, and would then be expected to help the prac- tice comply. There has been a great deal of negativity from dentists about CQC, but when either my practice manager or myself talked to the rest of the team about CQC, we would al- ways be very positive about it. There is no point undermining people’s confidence in some- thing if you then expect them to help you. Assuming that your prac- tice is compliant then the next stage of the CQC process should hold no fears for you or your team. A CQC inspection, or a ‘Review of Compliance’ as they are correctly termed, is the next thing that will happen. I have heard of practices that have only been given a couple of days’ notice by the CQC prior to one of these reviews. If your practice is compliant then this should not be a problem, be- cause apart from a quick check to make sure that you have everything you should have to hand, you will be prepared. I would have prepared my team well in advance, well ahead of receiving notice of a review, talking through the purpose of the review, how it is going to be conducted, and what should be said if anyone were asked a question by the inspector. This is not cheating; Managing CQC the Genghis Khan way Michael Young on registration, regulation and regulators ‘That’s how it was for dentists a gen- eration ago, but oh my, how things have changed: bit-by-bit, dentistry has slowly been coming under the ‘control’ of various regulatory bodies’ Dental receptionists have a lot to handle February 27-March 4, 20128 Feature United Kingdom Edition