JOANNA CAREW

Carew Dental is entitled to mock CQC inspections every 18 months as part of our Apolline Compliance membership.

These inspections are called “Compliance Audits” and are carried out by existing inspectors from other regulatory jurisdictions – ours is from the Welsh version of the CQC, the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW).

Today we had our second audit, and it was a fantastic opportunity to really pick the brains of an inspector. We always ask them to be super harsh, so that we aim for best practice across all areas of compliance.

This is one of my favourite aspects of our Apolline membership, it feels like such a weight off my mind, knowing we’ve shone in a dress-rehearsal, so that when the actual CQC inspection date lands we’ll fly through it, compliant and able to evidence our compliance.

For patients – and staff – they expect to attend a compliant, well-run practice, and these audits help to keep us on our toes and aiming to be the very best we can be.

I do find it frustrating that dentistry isn’t graded by the CQC, so you’d don’t get any acknowledgement for committing to best practice, and prior to visiting a practice, new patients can not easily differentiate between one that scraps through an inspection and one that sails through with flying colours.

Notwithstanding, we know we’re pro-active, and embrace the regulations rather than paying lip-service to them, and you can feel that as soon as you walk through the door.

Today’s audit was a massive success, we’d addressed all of the points raised during our first audit in January 2023, and today only received comments on two items: an audit we were completing annually rather than six-monthly, and an updated HSE certificate. WE SMASHED EVERYTHING ELSE!!!!!!!

There has been soooooo much stress lately – apologies, as I am desperately behind with blogging – but mini-wins like today are fabulous! I’m celebrating tonight for sure!!!!