St Johns House 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 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 as good. At this assessment, the rating remains the same.

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. There was a culture of kindness and respect within the practice. Staff collaborated with other experienced colleagues to provide support for patients. Staff gave examples of how they treated patients with kindness and compassion and supported patients to achieve everything they wanted from their appointments. Arrangements were in place to promote patients’ privacy. For example, private areas were available for patients if this was preferred, chaperones were available and privacy curtains were in all clinical rooms. Staff demonstrated that they considered patients specific needs and wishes. During the site visit, we observed staff being helpful and polite to patients. Patient feedback reflected this as patients felt they were treated with compassion and staff communicated with them in a way that they could understand. We spoke with a member from the Patient Participation Group (PPG) and they expressed how they felt they were treated with kindness, compassion and dignity. Staff listened and acted upon patients' needs. Reception staff responded to patients' requests and explained the options available to them.

The practice treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. Personal, cultural, social, religious and equality characteristic needs were understood and met. The practice had systems and processes to ensure patients were treated in a way that suited them. Registration forms included options for patients to address anything that was important to them. Patients were then coded on the system dependent on their needs, so all staff were aware of their specific preferences. The practice made reasonable adjustments for disabled people, had interpreting and translation services for patients who did notspeak English as their first language and British Sign Language was available. Information could also be given on paper instead of through technology for those who had difficulty using digital services to ensure communication needs were met.

The practice strived to promote people’s independence and support them to make decisions about their care, treatment and wellbeing. They provided patients with information and guidance to enable them to make informed decisions about their care.Staff shared examples of how they supported people to have choice and control over their own care and to make decisions about their care, treatment and well-being. National GP Patient Survey data showed that 92% of the respondents felt involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment during their last general practice appointment. Staff ensured that all necessary information was accessible between services, including the referral pathways to ensure patient preferences were met, to support and maximise patient’s independence and outcomes from care and treatment.

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. Most staff told us they knew the process for referral to emergency support and told us they could recognise when patients needed urgent help and would use appropriate support to assist. The social prescribers could also offer support and signpost to other relevant services to meet the needs of patients.

The practice cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff. Leaders told us they supported and valued their colleagues. This feedback about workforce wellbeing was reaffirmed in the answers from staff in their questionnaires. Staff felt supported and could ask leaders for help when needed. The practice had systems and processes in place for staff to provide feedback, raise concerns and suggest ways to improve the service for patient and staff experiences. This was reflected in staff feedback as they felt they had the ability to contribute to decision making. Leaders had taken steps to recognise and meet the wellbeing needs of staff. For example, workplace adjustments were put in place to suit staff needs, management updated staff with compliments received from patients, they had a wellbeing board in the staff room and staff regularly checked in with one another during the daily huddles. The practice also organised social events outside of work throughout the year to support good wellbeing.