Prenton 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

We assessed all quality statements under this key question. This was the first rated assessment of this service since the provider took over the contract. We rated this key question as good.

The service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. Staff we spoke with or received feedback from demonstrated a highly caring and patient centred approach to their work. Staff told us they worked well as a team with a shared priority to provide a high quality and caring service to patients.

The provider made staff welfare and wellbeing a priority and staff overall felt well supported in their roles.

This service scored 80 (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 was very good at treating people with kindness, empathy and compassion. Staff displayed understanding and a non-judgemental attitude towards people.

Feedback from people who used the service was highly positive for being treated with kindness, empathy and compassion. The experience of people who used the service as indicated in the National GP Patient survey showed that people felt listened to and were treated with care. For example, 89% of patients (compared to 85% nationally) felt that during their last appointments the healthcare professional was very good or fairly good at treating them with care and concern. The provider also shared feedback with us that they had received through the NHS Friends and Family test and this showed high patient satisfaction with the service.

A total of 35 people who used the service shared their experience of the service with CQC directly. This included, without exception, highly positive feedback about the staff team and included staff in all roles. Feedback included: ‘Excellent service. The reception staff are very friendly and professional and always help you’, ‘The doctors always do in person appointments and listen to you and check all aspects of your health. They are very thorough’,’ The nurses are excellent and always professional in their care. I cannot praise the surgery enough and every single person I have ever spoken to or seen at the surgery are friendly and professional and offer excellent care’ and ‘Excellent service from the receptionists, who are always helpful, friendly and polite, to the nurses and doctors who are sympathetic and helpful, nothing is too much trouble, the staff are delightful, courteous, empathetic and kind.’

There were arrangements to ensure confidentiality in the reception area. For example, if people were distressed or wanted to speak to reception staff in confidence.

The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met their needs and preferences.

Patients’ individual needs and equality characteristics were understood, and services were provided to meet these. Patients’ communication needs were identified and met to enable them to be fully involved in their care.

Staff had been provided with training in equal opportunities and they ensured the individual communication needs of patients were known and accommodated.

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

The result of the National GP patient survey showed that 91% of respondents (compared to 91% nationally) felt that during their last appointment they were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment.

Patient feedback shared directly with CQC was also highly positive about their involvement in decisions about care and treatment.

The service was good at responding to people’s immediate needs. Patients consistently reported a very quick turnaround in making contact with the service and their needs being met. Most people were managed on the day of contact with the service. The remaining were booked in for a more routine appointment in line with their needs. Patients were directed to the most appropriate person or service to meet their needs and ensure continuity of care where required.

The results of the GP National Patient Survey showed high levels of patient satisfaction with having their needs met with 90% of respondents (compared to 90% nationally) feeling their needs were met during their last appointment.

Patient feedback shared directly with CQC was highly positive about how the service responded to their immediate needs. Feedback from members of the PPG was positive and in line with all other feedback we received.

Staff carried out reviews and monitoring for people and altered their medicines to meet their changing needs.

The service promoted the wellbeing of staff. This included providing the necessary resources and facilities for safe working, training and professional development. Staff were positive about working at the practice. They felt valued and supported by colleagues and leaders. Staff we received feedback from overall reported feeling well supported in their role and felt that the provider listened to them, responded to their needs and considered their individual circumstances/support needs and supported flexible working when required.

Staff felt that the impact of being well supported resulted in them being a motivated workforce, with effective communication and team working and the impact of this supported a culture and environment that was patient centred.

The provider told us about some of the systems they had in place for supporting staff and provided a number of examples whereby staff views and feedback had been listened to, carefully considered and used to drive change.