More Than 40 Dentists Are CQC-Free in Wiltshire
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- Published: Monday, 28 February 2022 07:56
- Written by Guy Tuggle
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It’s the ‘phone call that every dental practice dreads. “Hello, this is the CQC, we’re calling to advise you that we propose to inspect your practice on...”
The pleasantries soon lead into a brief “who, what, where, when, how”, followed by an email outlining the execution of the visit.
For most practices battling to hit targets or self-flagellating because they omitted to undertake their annual staff appraisals during lockdown, the news is akin to being pushed across a field by an electric cow prod. Fortunately however, most dental practices are compliant and pretty ‘on it’ and dentistry enjoys a relatively high pass rate in the CQC’s sphere of regulated activities.
The CQC is charged with inspecting all practices with 10% of dental practices currently being looked at each year. It chooses its ‘victims’ on the basis of informed intelligence, for example, direct complaints raised against a practice, by random selection, or by its own historical records.
In Wiltshire however, there are ‘at least 41 practices which have never been fully inspected by the CQC’.
This damning news was broken by Wiltshire Live which cited the CQC’s website as a source. Some practices were registered as far back as 2011 and 2014 and have yet to receive a full inspection.
The media acknowledged that this could indicate that ‘no great risk to the quality of care had been raised’, however as GDPUK readers will know, CQC inspections, certainly back then, were not in response to concerns but as with school OFSTED inspections, a fact of daily life.
Very helpfully, Wiltshire Live listed the practices in Wiltshire and Swindon it claims have never been inspected. In fact some had but under previous as opposed to current ownership.
To what extent the list will comprise a prospect list for inspectors or an ‘avoid’ list for patients remains to be seen. Answers on a postcard please!
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