Duty of Care – Our Policies

The safety and well-being of all our patients is extremely important to us.  We aim to deliver high quality orthodontic treatment in a safe environment and take our clinical and legal obligations to our patients very seriously.  Here are some examples of the systems we have in place to protect our patients.

Consent

We will only proceed with planned treatment after a patient has given informed consent.

Radiographs (x-rays)

We only take radiographs when they are clinically justified and we take steps to ensure that every radiograph is as accurate as possible to reduce the need to repeat a radiograph.  In 2017 we invested in the most advanced and sophisticated imaging technology. All our dentists and nurses undertake regular radiography training and we follow regulations set out by IRMER.

Cross Infection Control/Decontamination

We fully comply with the Health Technical Memorandum HTM 01-05 and meet the criteria for best practice – the “gold standard” for cross infection control with a dedicated decontamination room, washer disinfector and we store instruments in a cupboard designed to reduce exposure to contamination.

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

We are registered and comply with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC are the independent regulator of health and social care in England. For a full copy of our 2016 CQC inspection report click here.

General Dental Council Registration

All our orthodontists, therapists and nurses are all registered with the General Dental Council (GDC).

British Dental Association Good Practice Award

In recognition of our high standard of care we have been awarded the prestigious BDA Good Practice Award.

Safeguarding

We take our safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously and we have procedures in place to ensure that vulnerable adults and children are treated with dignity and respect at all times. All our clinical staff achieved Safeguarding Children Level 3 and all staff have received Child & Vulnerable Adult Level 2 training.

First Aid

All members of staff are required to participate in annual CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) training and also training in the management of medical emergencies.

In addition Adele O’Reilly, Suzy Miley, Gemma Durkin and Tracey Young are trained as first-aiders for our practice.

Patient Surveys/Feedback

We carry out regular patient surveys to enable us to improve the running of the practice and the way we deliver patient care.  We also have post box in our waiting room where patients are encouraged leave general comments and suggestions on our Friends and Family feedback form. We value your feedback. For more information please click here.

Complaints

We take complaints very seriously and try to ensure that all our patients are pleased with their experience of our service.  When patients complain, they are dealt with courteously and promptly so that the matter is resolved as quickly as possible. For more information about complaints please click here.

Information Governance

Information Governance (IG) encompasses policies and procedures to manage the way in which data is stored and used by our organisation.  This includes both paper and electronic data.

Our practice is fully compliant with the latest GDPR and IG legislations and we regularly carry out audits to ensure that information and data is both used and stored appropriately.

Overleigh Orthodontics has been successful in their assessment under the Cyber Essentials Scheme.

View our practices “Data Privacy Notice for Patients” here.