A DENTAL practice has been told it needs to improve its safety by health inspectors.

Bolton Road Dental Centre in Farnworth, was visited by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspector in December last year.

The CQC said it carried out the inspection after concern from the NHS England area team to check if the four dentists and six dental nurses at the practice, were following safeguarding legislation.

The inspection found that a manager at the practice could not provide assurances that all staff were protected against hepatitis B, while recommendations in a Legionella risk assessment carried out in January, 2015, had not at the time been acted upon.

Among its findings the report stated: “Staff files we reviewed showed four clinical staff had no evidence they had received inoculation against Hepatitis B and evidence of bloods tested for the presence of the Hepatitis B antibody was not available for all clinical staff members. This meant the registered provider could not provide assurance that staff were protected.”

The inspection looked at a decontamination room for the disinfection, sterilisation and bagging of used instruments. and found a staff member carrying out decontamination who did not carry out hand hygiene.

The inspectors noted: “We observed members of staff regularly entering the room wearing contaminated gloves. Staff did not remove these before using a computer keyboard that should be classed as clean.

“We observed the workflow in the decontamination room and surgeries was not well-defined and clean and dirty zones were not clearly identified.”

A spokesman for the practice said: “We were disappointed with the outcome of the CQC inspection in December, however the dental team in the practice has worked hard over the past three months to improve standards, including providing staff with training on health and safety and decontamination processes.

“The practice was reinspected by the CQC on February 15, and is hopeful that the new report, when published, will reflect the improvements made since the previous inspection.

“We wish to thank the many thousands of patients of the practice for their support over the years and note that the Bolton Road Dental Centre is one of the very few dental practices in Bolton still providing access to new patients seeking NHS dental services.”