Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

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Place Traxodent After 2 minutes, rinse * Survey of 333 dentists who have used Traxodent at least once in their practice. / Clinical images courtesy of Shalom Mehler DMD, Teaneck, NJ. Dentists* have their say! 98% will recommend to a colleague 90% found Traxodent was easy to rinse 97% found Traxodent provided sufficient isolation and adequate hemostasis Y E A R S Available through: Ceramic Reconstructions • CTS Dental Supplies • DentalSky • Dental Directory • Dental Medical Ireland • Henry Schein/Minerva • Karma • Myerson • Swallow Dental Supplies • Trycare For more information, contact Scott Julian, UK Sales Manager: Tel: 07824442598 • Email: sjulian@premusa.com 23Practice ManagementFeb 11-17, 2013United Kingdom Edition ings, conditions were imposed on the dental professional. To my mind, having such in- formation in the public domain should be a strong incentive to steer clear of any ‘trouble’ with the GDC. Do you really want savvy patients checking out if you have a ‘record’ with the GDC? CQC – scary or not? At first glance it seems more like- ly that you’ll fail to comply with CQC requirements. Not only are there many steps elements within the essential requirements but it is essentially the practice that must comply and this means all the staff members need to meet their responsibilities. However, as I illustrated above, the CQC is not ‘out to get you’ but wishes to raise standards across the whole healthcare sector. I mentioned above that the CQC effectively closed a prac- tice in Dudley. Are you surprised when the inspector found used instruments in a sink which had apparently been there since the last patient was seen two to three weeks previously, an inoperative autoclave, medicines that were out of date and patients’ records that were missing? If, following a CQC inspection, your practice does not meet the ‘essential standards of quality and safety’, the extent of non-compli- ance is categorised as having mi- nor, moderate or major impact on your patients. For all minor im- pact non-compliance occurrences and some moderate impact ones, you will be required to produce an action plan for how, and by when, the standards will be met. If at a follow up visit your practice has now met all the standards, the CQC takes no further action. Where you’ve failed to carry out the action plan, you will get a written warning notice with a timescale to comply. You will also get a warning notice and timescale for multiple moderate impact and major impact non- compliances. However, if at a fol- low up visit your practice meets all the standards, the CQC again takes no further action. Things take a different turn if you do not heed the warning no- tice. The CQC can decide to pur- sue criminal law or civil enforce- ment action. Remembering the CQC essential standards of quality and safety are based on the Health and Social Care Act 2008, crimi- nal law can be used in response to breaches of certain regula- tions and sections of this act. In such cases, the CQC can serve a penalty notice and the registered person can pay a fixed penalty to avoid prosecution. The fines range from £300 (eg a failure to provide documents or information) to £4,000 (eg a fail- ure to comply with conditions of registration). If things proceed to prosecu- tion, the fines ramp up consider- ably. For the two examples above the fines are £50,000 and £2,500 respectively. The CQC may use its civil en- forcement powers in cases requir- ing, for example, urgent suspen- sion or cancellation of registration – when it believes that a person will or may be exposed to the risk of harm. The CQC publishes lists of its recent inspection reports each Wednesday and these are avail- able as monthly lists on the CQC website. People can also track down dental practices by geo- graphical location or postcode. Once you’ve found the practice that interests you, a table summa- rises the results of the most recent inspection (if there has been one). A green tick means standards were met, a black cross means improvements required and a red cross means enforcement action has been taken. The CQC offers a widget so practices can include this information on their web- sites – a potentially positive piece of marketing if you received all green ticks. Keeping out of trouble To avoid falling foul of the penal- ties I’ve highlighted above, I offer straightforward advice – follow authoritative guidance closely, keep up to date with changes in regulations, take expert advice when necessary and make sure your team members know their duties and responsibilities. DT About the author Amanda Atkin runs Atkinspire Ltd and offers practic- es support, train- ing and consultan- cy on information governance, CQC compliance, Na- tional Minimum Standards and HTM 01-05. Her bespoke service supports practices as they embed the required standards within their daily routines – to ensure a high quality service and patient safety at all times. e amanda@atkinspire.co.uk www.atkinspire.co.uk