Lees Medical Practice

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

We looked for evidence that the service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At our last assessment, we rated this key question as requires improvement. At this assessment, the rating changed to good.

This service scored 70 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We observed during the inspection visit that staff treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity.

Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. Staff we spoke with also presented as caring and empathetic.

Arrangements were in place to promote patients’ privacy.

National GP Patient Survey data indicated that people did not feel listened to or treated with kindness. People also told us they did not feel they were treated well by non-medical staff.

Leaders had reviewed this data and developed a quality improvement plan which included closer supervision of front of house staff and additional training in customer service for staff.

Staff we spoke with understood people’s rights in relation to the mental capacity act and best interest guidance. Processes were in place to ensure people had control over their choices.

The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. In general, they took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Patients’ personal, cultural, social, religious and equality characteristics needs were understood. Leaders had commenced making improvements that would enable them to be awarded for supporting people from disadvantaged or hard to reach groups, for example, they had recently been awarded the Veteran Friendly accreditation.

The service provided care and treatment to people who lived in a residential care home. Records indicated that people living there were treated as individuals and their choices respected. The manager of this care home confirmed that the practice took time to get to know residents as individuals and each person’s unique perspective was understood and respected.

The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Staff helped patients and their carers to access advocacy and community-based services.

The NHS GP patient survey 2025 feedback results indicated that patients felt involved in making choices about their care.

NHS GP patient survey results indicated people felt the service did not always listen to what was said. There has been a significant change in staff since the survey. During this assessment we observed, and information provided through recent Friends and Family results (March 2025 to June 2025) confirmed the views and wishes of most patients were respected.

Some people also told us, and evidence confirmed, that the practice responded in the moment and had the ability to act and minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

There was a system for appointment triage that ensured people with immediate needs had access to services. Staff we spoke with knew the process for referral to emergency support, including mental health crisis teams. Staff had completed specialist care navigation training to ensure information was correctly uploaded into the triage system so that the most appropriate course of action was signposted.

People who gave both negative and positive feedback described helpful support from staff to access additional services, despite other concerns.

Patients who only gave positive feedback described receiving immediate and effective care and treatment for their symptoms.

Data confirmed people who needed quick medical attention due to their symptoms, were seen without delay. Systems in place made sure these referrals were tracked and the results taken into account.

The administrative staff team members were mostly recent recruits who had worked at the practice for less than a year at the time of the inspection visit.

We noted that not all previous new recruits had passed their probation period for various reasons. Leaders have confirmed that recruiting, training and retaining high calibre and caring staff was a priority and progress was being made.

Leaders cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to deliver person-centred care. This was through a lengthy and intense induction program. We noted that when complaints included information about people not receiving person centred care this had been acknowledged and discussed between all staff and leaders.

Feedback from patients indicates leaders need to continue with the actions currently being taken to identify and employ staff who are able to relate to patients in a way that is acceptable to them.

Staff told us they were valued by leaders. Leaders had taken steps to recognise and meet the wellbeing needs of staff, which included the necessary resources and facilities for safe working, such as regular breaks and rest areas.

We saw plans to establish team building days within the practice.