RQIA publishes findings from its Review of the Implementation of the Royal Dental Hospital’s Inquiry Action Plan

In February 2011, as a result of a review of the clinical performance of a senior consultant at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust’s Royal Dental Hospital, as a precautionary measure, the trust initiated a recall of 117 dental patients.  Following an independent inquiry, chaired by Mr Brian Fee, QC, the Department of Health developed a Dental Hospital Inquiry Action Plan (July 2013), which identified 42 actions to address the inquiry’s recommendations for improvement.  In 2014, RQIA was commissioned by the Department of Health to review the implementation of the 2013 Action Plan.  At this time, RQIA’s review team advised that seven actions had not been completed, and agreed to undertake a further review in the future.

In 2017, RQIA returned to the Dental Hospital to review of the implementation of the outstanding actions.  Our review team noted that there was insufficient progress to address the actions highlighted in 2014, and we have made five recommendations to the Belfast Trust to support the full implementation of the 2013 Dental Hospital Inquiry Action Plan.  You can read the full report here and a summary leaflet is also available.