What does CQC require from a dental practice?
CQC registers dental practices as providers of a regulated activity and inspects them against five key questions — safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well led — with particular focus on decontamination, radiography governance, infection prevention, and patient safety systems.
What are the HTM 01-05 decontamination requirements for dental practices?
HTM 01-05 (Health Technical Memorandum 01-05, 2013) is the mandatory standard for instrument decontamination in primary dental care in England; it requires a defined decontamination cycle, validated washer disinfectors and autoclaves, traceability records for every instrument set, and a programme of scheduled testing and audit.
What are the IRMER requirements for dental x-rays?
The Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017 (IRMER) require every dental practice to appoint a registered practitioner and operator for each exposure, maintain a written procedures document and local rules, justify every exposure individually, and keep a quality assurance programme for all x-ray equipment.
What records must a dental practice keep, and for how long?
Adult patient records must be retained for at least ten years from the date of the last entry, or until the patient's 25th birthday if that is later; records for children must be kept until the patient's 25th birthday or for ten years from the last entry, whichever is longer, and certain regulatory and employment records have separate retention requirements under GDC, CQC, and employment law.
What should I include in a dental practice CQC inspection checklist?
A CQC inspection checklist for a dental practice should cover the five key questions framework and map evidence to each: for safe you need decontamination records, IRMER governance, IPC policy, and incident logs; for effective you need audits and clinical records; for caring you need patient feedback; for responsive you need complaints handling; for well led you need governance structure, staff training records, and leadership accountability.
What are the GDC complaint handling requirements for dental practices?
Under GDC Standards for the Dental Team (Standard 5), dental professionals and practices must acknowledge complaints promptly, investigate them fully and objectively, respond in writing within a defined timeframe, and maintain a complaints log that captures learning to prevent recurrence.