This branch of the CQC focuses its resources on areas that pose a greater potential radiological risk to patients, such as radiotherapy and nuclear medicine therapies, rather than dentistry.
In England, the CQC received several notifications where multiple patients received over-exposures as part of a dental examination. These were put down to factors such as staff not always being adequately trained on the site-specific equipment features, and staff not being aware that settings had been changed, so did not notice. Linked to this, it was found that spot checks and audits which may have picked up these alterations were not carried out following maintenance visits.
Following this, the CQC has issued several actions for dentists including training staff on equipment features and their potential dose implications, making sure that staff know when to escalate queries or concerns around changing equipment settings, and to carry out spot audits following visits from external contractors to ensure that the equipment settings and set-up remain optimised.