Dartmouth Health & Wellbeing Centre

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• 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 in April 2016, we rated this key question as Good. At this assessment, the rating remains unchanged.

People were treated with kindness and compassion. Staff protected their privacy and dignity, including in emergencies. They treated people as individuals, recognising and supporting their preferences. People had choice in their care and treatment, including where peoples’ appointments took place. Feedback received described staff as caring and compassionate. The service supported staff wellbeing.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

Staff treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

There were arrangements to promote patients’ privacy.

Staff demonstrated the importance of ensuring that people understood the care and treatment offered before obtaining consent.

Staff understood Gillick competency (Gillick competency refers to the legal ability of a child under 16 to consent to medical treatment without parental consent, provided they have sufficient understanding and intelligence to appreciate the treatment's nature, risks, and alternatives) and there was a process to ensure young adults had control over their own privacy and the amount of parental involvement in managing their care and support.

People described staff as compassionate, kind and professional. Feedback from people included “Receptionists are always friendly and polite and do their utmost to help. Nurses are efficient and caring. Doctors are friendly and considerate.” and “We have always been treated promptly and with excellent professionalism by all at the Practice.”

Results from the National GPPS showed that 90.4% of people who responded indicated that during their last appointment, the healthcare professional was very good or fairly good at treating them with care and concern, compared with a national average of 85.6%.

All relevant staff were trained in chaperone duties and there were notices throughout the service offering this service.

GPs had a designated patient lists to ensure continuity of care. The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

People’s personal, cultural, social, religious and equality characteristics needs were understood and met. People’s communication needs were met to enable them to be fully involved in their care.

The service was accredited as an Armed Forces veteran-friendly GP service and demonstrated a commitment to supporting vulnerable groups. Clinical notes were coded to ensure easy identification.

The services palliative care team monitored people at all stages of palliative care and end of life and provided people with care and treatment that helped them to manage pain and other symptoms, as well as providing emotional, spiritual and psychological support. There were processes to ensure people had healthcare professionals involved as early as possible. They assessed people’s needs and took account of their wishes, and made referrals to specialist care and support groups.

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 people and their carers to access advocacy and community-based services.

The service provided clear, accessible information on care and treatment options, supported shared decision-making in consultations, including providing written information and signposting to other services, support and self-management tools.

Results from the National GPPS showed that 97.2% of people who responded indicated that during their last appointment they were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment, compared with a national average of 92.1%.

The service listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted to 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.

We reviewed the appointment and triage system and saw urgent medical needs were identified and these were prioritised appropriately. Staff highlighted the support of the daily Duty Doctor who was always available to respond to patients’ immediate needs. During our site visit, there were on-the-day appointments available for patients with urgent needs

The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.

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

Staff were supported within their individual roles to ensure their workloads were manageable. All staff members had regular individual work review meetings with their team lead, which enabled workload and wellbeing to be discussed and monitored. This meant any issues could be identified and acted upon in a timely way.

The service had policies that protected staff from bullying and harassment. Surveys were undertaken to collect staffs’ views and staff told us that they worked as part of a supportive team in a positive working environment.

Staff told us they had enough time to carry out the duties of their role and protected time to undertake their training and continued professional development.

Staff said that they were happy working at the service and felt supported and valued by leaders. They described the leadership team as approachable and responsive, and said they could seek advice and guidance at any time.