Let's face it - CQC inspections can be scary stuff for principals and managers (and even associates!)

As per your request, I brought on a CQC Specialist Advisor, Dr Chita Davda to share her top tips to passing with flying colours.

https://youtu.be/iLkclWANzsk

Watch GF021 on Youtube

We discussed the common things that CQC checks on a practice, common questions they ask, and some tips on how to pass the examination. The emphasis is on understanding that the CQC and dental professionals share the same core ethics. Inspections aren't about catching each other out but ensuring the best possible care for patients.

Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below!

If you want to learn more about Dr Chita, you can check out her website https://www.trainwithchita.co.uk

In the upcoming CPD event at The Shard, attendees will get a rare opportunity to hear from a lead inspector from the CQC. This provides a chance to debunk myths and understand common errors, offering clarity to dental professionals.

If you want to be a part of this event, head over to https://protrusive.co.uk/shard

If you enjoyed this episode, you will also like Indemnity vs Insurance 2023 – Which one is best for you? – GF019

Did you know? You can get CPD from the Web App or Phone App and watch premium clinical videos, for less than a tax deductible Nando’s per month?

Click below for full episode transcript:

Episode Teaser: Do you go through the notes? Is there a sort of a protocol you follow to go through every associate, every dentist's notes? How does that work?

[Ruchita]Yeah, so we try and keep it as fair as possible. And obviously we'll ask permission of the dentist just to make sure they're okay for us to go through it.

[Jaz]And if they say no, is that a cheat code?

[Ruchita]If they say no, then we feel like you want something to hide. Try not to say no. I've had it queried a couple of times, but also we have like a warrant when we go into a practice. So in theory, we are able to access what we need to. But I'd also, as a fellow dentist, I like to just keep that respect for everyone.

So even if I have to look at the drawers inside a dent, like a surgery, I'll always just be like, do you mind if I have a look? If there's anything you don't want me to see, maybe just get rid of it for a few minutes and then put it back in if that's okay.

Jaz's IntroductionHello, Protruserati. I'm Jaz Gulati and welcome to a group function. We haven't done one of these episodes in a long while. A GF episode is basically when we take a question from the Protruserati. And you know what? I've always kind of shied away from compliance, right? Compliance type things don't excite me so much, but it's important to cover because that's what allows us to practice our dentistry safely.

And that's exactly what today is about. So there's something in the UK called the Care Quality Commission or the CQC, and every dental practice needs to have some sort of inspection at some point from the CQC to make sure that everything is safe and well for that practice to deliver patient care.

So I brought on today Dr. Ruchita Davda to talk us about what are the common pitfalls we make when it comes to these CQC inspections and how to make sure we pass with flying colors. There are no premium notes for this episode, but at the end you can get CPD for this by answering a few questions on the app. Otherwise, those of you listening, please enjoy those of you watching.

It's not a super visual episode, but there's so many important nuggets. If you are a UK practitioner and you have a practice, or you're thinking about buying a practice one day, it gives you great insights into what the CQC actually does and how to make sure you are prepared for that eventuality. Please enjoy the episode and I'll catch you in the outro.

Main Episode:Chita Davida, welcome to the Protrusive Dental Podcast. How are you?

[Ruchita]I am good. Thank you. And how are you, Jaz?

[Jaz]You know what? I've had the sniffles. I've been trying to shake it off for the longest time. And I emailed everyone about it, the list and stuff. It's something in the air. Something's going around.

[Ruchita]Yeah. A good little tip, which I don't know if it's fine to share. But if you keep drinking lots of water, then make sure you're having vitamin D for like your immune system. So you don't slack on that, basically.

[Jaz]I'm definitely taking my vitamin D. And also after, there's an episode I did with Prav Solanki a while ago. And he got me into making sure that I do the three of a blood testing every three months, which I think you're quite into as well. These kind of like it checking your body. Cause obviously when I get you into yourself, you're so much more than a dentist. Like your whole facets about health and stuff. So let's start with that Chita. Tell us about you, yourself.

[Ruchita]Cool. So I'm a general dentist qualified around 12 years ago. And then three years ago, it's actually just before COVID I wanted to kind of get into health and I kind of had a bit of a transformation where I lost a little bit of weight, but I found.

That my journey was probably longer than it could have been by working with like different personal trainers, online coaches, and I was like surely it must be easier than this, like surely I don't just have to eat broccoli every day to lose weight and work out loads in the gym. So I did like a personal training course, I've worked with various mentors, and I'm also like an online coach.

So I basically mainly help women lose weight, feel like the best version of themselves, so super confident, but whilst focusing on health. So we look at like blood test analysis, and woman analysis, it just works really well. And I actually work with a lot of dentists, so it's quite nice because I know how stressful our lifestyle can be, how sedentary it can be as well.

But I've always got little tips and tricks up my sleeve to help. And then also three years ago, I started working with CQC as a specialist dental advisor, which I'm really excited to kind of talk about on the podcast today.

[Jaz]So what is that? I mean, that's we'll invite you back when they talk about health and stuff. I'm always into that, so that's exciting already. But something that I want to reserve the audience is for those my listeners and watchers outside the UK, I'm so sorry. kind of skip the next episode before episode, maybe jump back 100 few episodes ago. This is more for the UK group, basically, because CQC is a UK thing.

So our mission statement, Chita, by the end of this episode is kind of like a CQC for dummies. It's kind of like, explain CQC to me, like, I'm 12 years old, like I'm having my first inspection, like, that's kind of like the angle we want to go, right? So what capacity do you work with in CQC? Like, what is your role?

And how and to what capacity can you help us? Like, can you spill all the beans? What are you allowed and not allowed to do?

[Ruchita]I can spill a lot of beans, but like within reason. So I don't know if you remember, maybe I'm showing my age, but a really, really long time ago. So when CQC first started, they used to basically have like general people coming out to inspect dental practices.

So they may have been like policemen, teachers, and they didn't really understand what a dental practice was. So they may be like, show me a rubber dam kit for an extraction. You'd be like, well, you don't use one for that. And that's when they realized, actually, we need to have dentists or like therapists, hygienists, dental nurses on board.

So what happens in a CQC inspection is you have your lead inspector. So they're like the main person. They write the report. And then they get to invite like a dentist or a therapist or a hygienist or a dental nurse, which is someone like me. And then we kind of make it realistic. So, working in practice, we know that everything cannot be perfect, but the purpose of a CQC inspection is just to make sure that patients are being looked after and that everyone is safe and we're just following the correct guidelines.

So as a dentist, I'm going to be honest, before I worked with CQC, there were some things that I probably thought, why are they asking this? Or it's a bit stupid, or it's a little bit, like, why do they need to know? And then actually, since having my role with them, I've learned that the way I do dentistry isn't how, like, everyone else would do dentistry.

So that, unfortunately, there are some people who don't follow guidelines, who won't follow DECON and things like that. And then that's why CQC have had to kind of had a big role. So it's just making sure, like, everyone just following the right things. We're never there to catch anyone out. We're actually there to help dentists as well and it's more just patient safety. So and sometimes we can get whistleblowers and it's actually just knowing that could be a disgruntled staff member. It may not actually be that the practice is unsafe or dirty. But we're just kind of doing the checks before someone takes it further to like the media or something like that and we can say actually we've checked it. We're happy with it. So yeah hopefully that means.

[Jaz]The way I see CQC, like any regulator for any profession, forget dentistry, right? You will always like, have that bitterness towards your regulator. You'll always be like, oh no, it's them again. Like I just want to continue on my life. But the way I see it, the way I see CQC, and please correct me if my analogy is wrong here, is when you go to a restaurant or any takeaway, they've got that food safety like one to five, right?

And like, you will still eat out of four. People, okay, I'll see it at a four, three I might snub at, okay, even me, okay, three I might snub at,