Health and safety in the dental practice is key! At Apollo, due to our vast experience within the dental surgery refurbishment field we are able to advise our clients through the design and fit out stage to ensure that all room layouts and equipment installations comply with CQC, health and safety and HTM01-05 regulations, to either best practice or CQC essential requirement guidelines.

But are you confident that you and your practice are up to date with all the latest training and compliance’s?  We’ve detailed a couple to help you identify what we mean.

Essential Standards of Quality and Safety

This assessment is designed to demonstrate to your practice team, your patients and the regulatory bodies that you are proactively working towards maintaining your obligations and compliance as well as highlighting any potential finding that you will need to manage.

A typical assessment of health and safety in the dental practice will include:

• Your premises including access, facilities, security, fire precautions, third parties and business continuity plans
• Information governance including Freedom of Information Act, manual computerised records, Data Protection and security
• Radiography including IRR99 amd IR(ME)R2000 compliance
• Cross Infection and Decontamination including HTM 01-05 compliance. Approved code of practice guidance and surgery audits
• Foreseeable medical emergencies including resuscitation, emergency drugs provision, equipment and protocols
• Training, documentation and certificates
• Waste management, documentation and storage
• Practice policies and written procedures
• Audit of clinical records and patient outcomes including quality measures

A full practice assessment normally takes 6 hours, however this time can increase dependant on the number of surgeries being assessed.

Health and Safety Risk Assessment

All employers and any person who is self-employed at your practice are required to assess the risks in the work place according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Management of Health and Safety at Work regulations 1999 (risk assessment), CQC (England only) “Essential Standards of Quality and Safety” Regulation supporting evidence.  It is recommended that you have a Health & Safety Risk assessment every 12 months or sooner if there are to be any maintenance work or structural changes to your premises.

Do you know how to and have you completed a risk assessment of the health and safety in the dental practice you work in? Have you assessed the hazards and the risks? Hazards are anything that may cause somebody harm such as:

• Dental materials
• Dental equipment like a compressor
• Waste management
• Repetitive movements, slips, trips and falls
• …Or even an open drawer

The risk is the likelihood, high or low, that somebody could be harmed by the hazard together with an indication of how serious the harm could be. We’ve included a link to a fantastic example of a risk assessment template: http://leatherlanedental.co.uk/DOWNLOADS/Policies/Risk.pdf

A good reputable assessment company will provide you with an online report, confirming the results of your assessment with any improvements and recommendations required via a bespoke action plan.

And there’s More…

There are other assessments and training opportunities for you and your teams to consider to become fully compliant:

• Radiation Protection
• Working with Patients and Information Governance
• Legionella Risk Assessment
• Fire Risk Assessment

Getting Assessed

There are a few ways to find assessors to check and train compliance. The best way is to ask your colleagues for their recommendations and shop around.

Find out:

• How long the certification lasts for
• Can your whole team be trained for a fixed price
• Can the training be taught on line
• Can the assessments be taken outside of practice hours
• Is the company accredited to do the training
• What added benefits any health care support company will offer you

Apollo is a specialist fit out company and we understand dental surgery design and the functionality of reception and waiting room areas. We thoroughly understand the legal requirements with regards to health and safety in the dental practice. Contact us form more information.