Mayflower 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 rated the key question of caring as good.

The service treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. People who used the serviced were treated as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met their needs and preferences. They promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. 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. Leaders promoted the importance of staff well-being. Despite this, based on the evidence we gathered at the time of the assessment, the evidence did not demonstrate that leaders always acted in a way that promoted the well-being of their staff.

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.

The service treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. For example, when a large employer with an all-male workforce was closing the practice sent all their male patients a text message about available men's services. National GP Patient Survey data reflected people felt listened to and were treated with kindness. The practice had multiple systems in place to gather patient feedback. Examples included text messages following an appointment and engaging with local support, charitable and community groups to gather patient feedback. The feedback we saw was mainly positive. Where any negative feedback was received, the practice actively followed up to investigate.

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. For example, the practice had implemented a ‘Green Card Scheme’ to allow patients concerned about their mental health, who may lack the confidence or ability to speak with the reception team, to submit a green card at reception. The reception staff would then escort the patient to a private room to discuss their concerns and seek clinical advice. When a patient called regarding mental health, a text message containing contact information for mental health services they could access while awaiting their appointment was sent to the patient. Patient communication needs were identified and met to enable them to be fully involved in their care.

The provider told us they wanted the practice to be part of the community and one of the ways to help achieve this was to have an independent advocate for the patients as part of the practice team. We saw multiple examples of how the patient experience manager role was working to achieve this. All but 1 member of staff had completed equality and diversity training. The one who had not completed the training was a new member of staff. Feedback from staff demonstrated a clear understanding of how they ensured the individual communication needs of patients were known and accommodated.

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. They were proactive in raising the profile of a wide range of community services to help patients do this.

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. Staff had been trained to recognise when people needed urgent help or support and used appropriate tools and technology to assist with this. Information was available to support staff to understand the process for referring patients to emergency support services, for example mental health crisis teams.

Leaders promoted the importance of staff well-being. There was a staff notice board, star of the month, a QR code for staff to submit anonymous concerns, competitions and, in recent times, fundraising to support a staff member. After the assessment, the provider sent us some examples of correspondence with staff to demonstrate where people’s circumstances had been taken into consideration and adaptions made to support the staff member. Staff attended team meetings.

Despite this, based on the evidence we gathered at the time of the assessment, the evidence did not demonstrate that leaders always acted in a way that promoted the well-being of their staff. We received feedback and were provided with evidence that showed that when issues were raised with management, they were either dismissed or acknowledged but not consistently followed through with appropriate action or support. For example, specific concerns regarding the dispensary had been formally raised and the impact on well-being discussed but had not been fully addressed at the time of the assessment. Concerns which staff had been raising for over 12 months were identified as concerns by CQC during the assessment. Further details are referenced in the key question of well-led.