Scott Arms Medical Centre

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

At the previous inspection we rated the practice as requires improvement for providing caring services as patient feedback was negative in response to the care they received.

At this assessment we found people we spoke with were happy with the care they received, however comments on accessing care were negative. This was also reflected in the national patient survey where the practice had scored below local and national averages for a range of indicators in relation to accessing care and the overall experience of the GP practice. An action plan was in place to improve people's experience.

Staff we spoke with demonstrated the values of the practice and dealt with patients with kindness, respect, and compassion. Interactions we observed between staff and patients, showed that staff listened to patients and treated them with kindness.

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.

Staff we spoke with demonstrated the values of the practice and dealt with patients with kindness, respect, and compassion. Interactions we observed between staff and patients, showed that staff listened to patients and treated them with kindness. The practice had received negative feedback from patients through the GP National Patient Survey and patient enquiries received at the CQC also indicated that patient satisfaction was poor. The practice had implemented an action plan following the national patient survey results to improve patient satisfaction scores. However, the plan was limited to demonstrating improvements. For example: the recommendations for a number of indicators were to continue to discuss at meetings and achieve target. There were no actions to achieve or plans on how to do this.

Resources were available such as language line to support patients who didn’t have English as a first language. Staff we spoke with were aware of the needs of the practice’s population and gave us examples on how they supported patients. For example, appointments were offered at different times of the day to suit people's needs and people with complex needs or palliative care had a dedicated clinician to oversee their care to ensure their needs were met.

Results from the GP national patient survey showed 82% of people had stated that during their last appointment they were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment. This was below local and national averages. People we spoke with on the day of the onsite assessment told us they felt included in decisions about their care and treatment.

The CQC had received a number of complaints about the care people received and feedback through NHS UK also was negative. We spoke with people present on the day of the onsite assessment about the care they received. Feedback was generally positive about how people were treated, however people told us about the difficulties they faced in seeing a GP and how this impacted on their wellbeing in seeing a clinician when needed.

The practice had recruited additional clinicians to improve appointment availability and access to different clinical services and their website provided information on different groups of the practice population to overcome health inequalities.

We spoke with a range of staff on the day and found staff were positive about working at the practice and the support they received. Staff told us that they had been well supported when needed and adjustments had been made when required to ensure that staff were able to do their role effectively. Regular meetings were in place to share learning and updates. The practice had seen a number of staff leave in recent months and had commissioned an independent cultural review to gather staff feedback to review current processes and implement new ways of working to ensure the health and wellbeing of staff. The cultural review was planned for February 2025. The leadership team planned to introduce an Employee of the Month initiative for the administration team, to recognise outstanding contributions and boost morale. Daily huddles were also being organised for all staff so everyone had an opportunity to share concerns or ideas with their colleagues.