Musters 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 good. At this assessment the rating remains the same with elements of outstanding. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 85 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

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

We observed staff treating people with kindness and respect within the waiting room. Arrangements were in place to promote peoples’ privacy. Staff that chaperoned patients were aware of their responsibilities in maintaining a person’s dignity and safety during an intimate examination. People’s religious and cultural needs were respected.

Staff we spoke with understood Gillick competency (medical law to determine if a child under sixteen years of age can consent to their own medical treatment), 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.

The service had processes in place for people who found it hard to access services by utilising interpreters and directing people to relevant services where they may need extra support. For example, they utilised the PCN employed social prescriber link worker to refer and support people for smoking cessation, weight management and exercise advice and enrolment at local gyms and walking clubs.

The service’s website had the provision of displaying content to suit people’s needs. For example, translation to other languages, larger text, contrast changes, dyslexia friendly text and ability to pause animations to meet people’s needs.

National GP Patient Survey data and feedback received from people reflected people felt listened to and were treated with kindness. For example, 95% of respondents stated that during their last appointment, the healthcare professional was very good or fairly good at treating them with care and concern. This was better than the national average of 85%.

Feedback from people who used the service was positive and staff at all levels were described as kind, understanding and helpful.

The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatments met people’s needs and preferences. Patient communication needs were met to enable them to be fully involved in their care.

National GP Patient Survey data reflected that people felt involved in decisions about their care. For example, 98.2% of respondents 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 above with the national average of 90.9%.

The practice supported all people, including refugees and homeless people, to access healthcare. We saw evidence of support tools and advice to aid people’s independence and support. For example, all staff had received training about autism and learning disabilities and were able to support people who found it difficult to be independent and to access services. The service worked with a PCN social prescriber link worker to promote people’s independence and help with well-being and social problems by referring to external stakeholders. For example, services to improve wellbeing and access to services to help with social isolation such as local knitting and sewing groups, community allotment group and coffee mornings.

The service held a register of carers and appointed a dedicated carers’ champion who supported this group of people. Carers were signposted to support groups, and all staff were aware of the carer’s champion role. Processes were in place to record when new patients registered with caring responsibilities and the practice routinely checked on carer’s wellbeing.

The service is an accredited registered veteran friendly practice. Accreditation meant that the service had an awareness of some of the specific needs of veterans and could better identify and treat Veterans, refer them, where appropriate, to dedicated mental health and wellbeing services andthe “Veterans Physical Health and Wellbeing Service” without discrimination.

The service is a dementia friendly practice. To promote excellent care to people with a diagnosis of dementia, the service introduced specific appointment slots with GPs for dementia reviews, ensuring more personalised and consistent care. All reception staff are trained as Dementia Friends, reinforcing the service’s commitment to creating a supportive and understanding environment. The service work closely with the social prescribing team to promote Dementia Action Week, helping to raise awareness and connect patients with local resources. The service invited the Carers Hub Liaison Worker to deliver advanced training to carers champions, strengthening the support available to those caring for individuals with dementia.

The service launched a targeted campaign inviting eligible male patients to attend for PSA blood testing. Due to the success of the initiative, the service has extended opportunistic testing. As a result of the testing the service has identified clinical results that have required and received timely follow-up.

Also, the service welcomed a dedicated member of our Patient Participation Group (PPG), into the practice to promote the local Diabetes Support Group, which they chair. This presence helped raise awareness and encouraged engagement with valuable community-led support services. In addition, the service also held a lung health promotion aimed at improving respiratory wellbeing. The initiative included inhaler recycling program, asthma education group and information and resources to support people to stop smoking.

The service completed weekly ward rounds providing medical care to registered people residing in local care homes. People were treated with dignity and respect and investigations and examinations were carried out in the best interest of the person.

We did not look at Independence, choice and control during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

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.

The service used feedback from the National GP Patient Survey, the patient participation group, complaints and comments to respond to people’s needs. The practice maintained a complaints, compliments and suggestions log which was reviewed regularly with the practice team, to identify any emerging trends or themes of concern, and responded to these quickly. The service had introduced a new telephone system and triage system for appointments. The triage system ensured people with immediate needs had access to services when they needed them and promoted the use of the online system for appointments and online consultations. Staff we spoke with knew the process for referral to emergency support.

Home visits were undertaken to housebound people with a mental health condition, such as agoraphobia which is an anxiety disorder which triggers intense fear of being outside, as well as those with medical and physical disabilities.

Feedback from people who used the service reported positive experiences with prompt responses to appointment requests.

The service had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. They listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. Lessons were learnt to continually identify and embed good practice.

The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. We collected feedback from twelve staff members through questionnaires submitted to us as part of this assessment. Staff told us they were valued by leaders. Staff were positive about the support they received from leaders and staff told us they were listened to and were supported when they required additional support.

Leaders told us that they encourage personal development and continue to invest in staff, diversifying and developing skills and knowledge to ensure that they had a highly skilled, resilient and adaptable workforce to meet the needs of people and communities. Leaders said that they had immense pride in their team.

Staff told us that informal daily “huddles” or meetings were held to discuss priorities for the day. Also, leaders discussed and celebrated what went well the previous day and recognised when staff had gone the extra mile to help people. In addition, leaders checked on the wellbeing of the team at the daily huddles and staff told us that there was an open culture to discuss any problems or concerns at these meetings.

Staff notice boards had been erected around the building to inform of changes to systems or processes. The notice boards were used to promote staff wellbeing. An employment assistant program was provided free of charge for staff to access if they had personal problems, for example, housing or debt problems.

The service had commenced and celebrated an employee of the month program which the staff had positively welcomed. For example, the service stated, “the employee of the month initiative is all about celebrating the everyday heroes of our GP practice. Whether it’s someone who goes the extra mile for a patient, keeps the team smiling and adds a bit of friendly fun to our work culture. It is a great way to say thank you to our team.” In addition, the service held well-being walks around the river and fun days during professional learning sessions, and a book swap corner had commenced, all of which had improved staff moral.

The service provided written guidance and resources to help staff perform their role competently and there were good communications systems and updates for staff and which promoted staff wellbeing.

Staff told us that they were able to make anonymous suggestions using a suggestion box and staff told us that suggestions were acted upon and changes implemented. Staff informed us that the practice had a positive blame free culture. For example, complaints were investigated, and findings were shared positively to enable learning from complaints. Staff felt supported to raise concerns and were treated them with compassion and understanding.

The service provided post graduate GP training to qualified doctors who were training to become a GP, and the training of undergraduate medical students. Feedback from trainees was consistently positive about the inclusive work environment, educational and personal support from all practice staff.