Umbrella Medical at Hatherton 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

People were treated with kindness and compassion. Staff protected their privacy and dignity. They treated them as individuals and supported their preferences. People had choice in their care and treatment. The practice 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.

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

There was a culture of kindness and respect within the practice. Staff gave examples about how they treated patients with kindness and compassion to support them. For example, there was a designated quiet area for those patients that preferred this space and reasonable adjustments were made for patients with additional needs.

The National GP Patient Survey Data demonstrated that 82% of respondents felt they were treated with care and concern during their last appointment, which met the local average of 82% but was lower than the national average of 86%. Following this feedback, the practice had developed their own questionnaire and continued to send this out to patients to identify ways they could improve. Arrangements were in place to promote patients’ privacy. For example, the waiting area was not directly near the reception area so conversations could not be overheard, chaperones were available, and privacy curtains were in the clinical rooms. During the site visit, we observed staff being helpful and polite to patients. We received positive patient feedback highlighting the kindness of staff. For example, a patient expressed how helpful the staff were when they arrived at the practice. PRG members supported patients navigating the premises whilst answering any questions for patients.

The practice 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.

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

Translation services and interpretation including British Sign Language support were available. We saw evidence of support tools and advice to aid people’s independence. For example, staff had received training about autism and learning disabilities and were able to assist people who found it difficult to be independent and to access services.

The practice 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.

National GP Patient Survey data was broadly in line with the local and national averages. As part of our assessment, we invited patients to provide us with their feedback about the practice via our ‘Give Feedback on Care’ process. We received feedback that patients reported being listened to, treated with respect, and given clear information to support them in having choice and control. Staff ensured that all necessary information was accessible between services to ensure patient preferences were met to support and maximise patient’s independence and outcomes from care and treatment. This was also considered during the referral pathways, including social prescribing service, home visits and pathology.

The practice 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.

Reasonable adjustment details were recorded in the patients record, to ensure these were clearly visible to all staff with patient contact with the practice.

The practice ensured staff had completed care navigation training and had access to guidance and prompts to support them in assigning patients to the right clinical staff member or service. These staff members were supported by a duty GP or clinician who completed clinical triage. The guidance in place for staff also included an appointment time frame to ensure clinicians had sufficient time allocated to meet the patient’s needs.

Staff we spoke with confirmed they knew how to respond when a patient needed urgent attention and knew the processes to follow to ensure emergency support was given. Requests for appointments were subject to assessment via clinical triage. The enhanced care navigation and clinical triage system was supported by care navigators to ensure patients received appropriate and responsive care. The paramedics reviewed the urgent online triage under the supervision of the duty doctor to ensure people with immediate needs had access to the appropriate services. Various appointments were available such as face to face or telephone. Following the merger and move to a new purpose-built building, additional clinical rooms were introduced, enabling the practice to increase appointment capacity and meet patient demand.

The provider was working to improve engagement with hard-to-reach groups in a deprived, multi-ethnic population and to make greater use of digital approaches.

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

Staff feedback was positive. For example, staff felt supported in their roles and felt that leaders were visible, approachable, compassionate and understanding. Leaders had taken steps to recognise and meet the wellbeing needs of staff. For example, menopause, anxiety and stress events took place to help with staff wellbeing. A staff health and wellbeing committee took place regularly where there were opportunities to have discussions about both work and non-work matters.