Care Quality Commission Support

CQC Support Services - Updated February 2011

CQC implementaton and training is well and truly upon us. At Samera, the CQC should not be something to be feared, but implemented in an organised and effective manner. We can help you in the following manner:

1. Practice Assessment Day

In this day we can assess the practice set up and assess the practice's compliance with the CQC. We will perform a GAP analysis and then present our findings and action list after our full assessment of the practice.

Fee - £450+VAT

2. Development and production of all practice policies.

We can help you produce all the necessary policiies and procedures that we feel you must have in practice to ensure practice compliance. No more paperwork headaches, we will provide to you a complete file of all your policies and procedures.

Fee - £1750+VAT

3. In Practice Training

CQC is an ongoing process within practice. Therefore, producing paperwork is not enough to aid compliance, we feel that training of the practice team is an essential aspect of the CQC process. Training must be ongoing to ensure all team members are fully aware of their resposibilities.

Fee - £400+VAT per day. We recommend at least 5 days of training over a 6 month period.

Total Fee (assuming 5 days of training) - £4200+VAT. We can offer a discount of 5% if you decide up front that you feel you need this whole package.

Update - 19th November 2010

Most dental practices will have received their CQC application form, and by the initial look of it, the actual completion of the CQC form isn't that difficult. Most must complete their CQC applications by 31 December 2010 to ensure their forms are reviewed in time so the practice is not in breach of the Health and Social Care Act which comes into force on 1st April 2011.

However, the difficulty lies in ensuring that all practices have policies and procedures in place that are fully documented, workable and actually being used and implemented in practice. This is where much work will be required initially, but also on an ongoing basis.

Various insitutions, such as the BDA and CODE have, or are bringing out their versions of templates for policies and procedures to reach CQC compliance, and after much deliberation, in our opinion, most practices would be best off using one of these sets of templates.

Why re-invent the wheel after all?

However, as we all know, buying a set of templates off the Internet is the easy part, you then need hours of time and expertise to actually run through them, tailor them and then finally train your team in them.

This is exactly where the Samera team of CQC advisors can help, through policy design and implementation into your practice. You will save much time, but also ensure, you have all bases covered for CQC compliance.

We detail below how the Samera Team can best help you with CQC Implementation.

Step 1 – You will need to purchase one of the available packs in the market place, such as the BDA’s CQC Support Kit

Step 2 – Once you have received the above kit, one of our CQC delegated staff will come to visit you at your practice. Our staff will give you (and your senior staff such as your practice manager if applicable) a brief introduction about the CQC compliance requirements.They will also brief you on the process involved and how we will carry it out to ensure that you are fully compliant with the CQC requirements. They will assess your practice’s current position in respect of CQC compliance and then prepare a GAP Analysis between your current position and full compliance.

Step 3 – We will then outline your CQC position in our GAP Analysis report and make suggestions where further improvements for compliance are required. We will also then amend and fully tailor your CQC policies and procedures templates and make them available to you.

In addition, we will also highlight any necessary training or help we feel your practice will need for CQC compliance.

Step 4 – You will then need to review the amended policies and procedures and put a plan of implementation into your practice. A plan of implementation will involve communicating and training your team in all the policies and procedures on an ongoing basis to ensure compliance with the CQC. Our CQC team will be able to help you in training your team in all the policies and procedures which will help ensure CQC compliance but also improve your practice performance.

Samera CQC Fees

Our professional fees for helping your dental practice with CQC compliance start from as little as £200+VAT for just the tailoring of your policies and procedures. Depending on your needs we can tailor a cost effective pricing structure to ensure you have all the necessary documentation and training for your team to achieve CQC compliance.

Please call us on 0207 100 8788 or email cqc@samera.co.uk and ask for CQC help.

Update 25th October 2010

With effect from 1st April 2011, all dental practices will be required by law to be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). If the practice is not registered, the consequences could be very damaging to business owners, in the most serious of circumstances with the practice being forced to close by the CQC.

This is not something you want to happen to you.

There will be no registration fee, however, according to the CQC consultation documentation, released on the 25th October, from the 1st April 2011 an annual fee will be payable.

This starts from a whopping £1500 for a single practice, all the way up to £48,000 if you have 101 or more practices . The table below summarises the CQC proposed annual fee structure. The fee is based on the number of locations.

More details on the fee consultation are in this CQC document. Page 14 outlines the dental related fees.

How We Can Help You

At Samera, over the last few months we have building up our intellectual capital so we are ready to help our clients with CQC. Over the coming weeks we will be releasing more information on this page, but for now we can help you in the following ways:

1. You can attend our CQC Information Webinar on the 10th November at 6pm - you can register here

2. If you need further help with CQC registration, our team will be able to help you with:

• Completing the CQC registration form
• A full assessment of your practice requirements to comply with CQC
• Help with patient surveys and audits
• An action plan to ensure compliance with CQC.
• Guiding you through the process of the 28 outcomes in Essential Standards of Quality and Safety
• Developing all your practice CQC policies and procedures to help you ensure compliance with CQC

The extent of work required by Samera to help you with CQC registration will vary greatly, depending upon client needs. Therefore, in the first instance drop an email to cqc@samera.co.uk about your needs or alternatively call Hiren Shah on 0207 100 8788 who will be able help you.