Parkway

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• 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 inspection we rated this key question good. At this inspection the rating has remained good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 70 (out of 100) for this area.

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.

Access to sonography equipment and its associated IT was password protected, although we observed at one location that staff had left the building with the clinic door left open and in a publicly accessible area, leaving personal identifiable information for each person attending the clinic visible. This meant that service users could not always be assured their personal information was secure.

Otherwise, we observed staff attitudes and behaviours with service users that showed they were discreet, respectful and responsive, providing people with help, emotional support and advice at the time they needed it. Service users also said staff treated them well and behaved appropriately towards them.

This section was partly assessed using findings that apply to the whole Parkway site, which are included in the appropriate section of the surgery report.

The service made adjustments for service users by ensuring people’s access to premises and by meeting their specific communication needs. Managers ensured that staff and service users had easy access to interpreters, and staff knew how to use these systems.

A core focus of the service was to provide clinics that were closer and more accessible to service users’ homes. We spoke with someone who had called the service to request a different sonography clinic as arranging transport was difficult, and this was arranged for her.

The service had a policy for the emergency treatment and transfer of critically ill people, but this did not include any specific arrangements for people seen at satellite clinics or mobile MRI units, although the universal advice to call 999 could be followed. Staff at a satellite clinics demonstrated a good knowledge of what would be considered an urgent finding and an appropriate response to ensure that the individual’s wellbeing is prioritised in that scenario.

We noted a case where the service had been made aware that a service user with severe hearing loss had previously missed an appointment as they could not hear their name being called. In response, ultrasound staff held a placard with the person’s name in the waiting room to address this concern. The service user reported that this effort had been appreciated.

This section was partly assessed using findings that apply to the whole Parkway site, which are included in the appropriate section of the surgery report.

Sonography staff described feeling respected, supported and valued by their managers, and proud about working for the service. Staff sickness absence rates overall were low.

Staff told us they had no choice in which satellite clinics they attended but felt able to speak to managers if their allocation affected their wellbeing. While some staff were expected to carry ultrasound equipment and keep it in their personal possession outside of work, they were accepting of this arrangement and understood it as part of the job role. Manual handling training compliance was good.

Some staff in the service reported that they weren’t provided with protected time to complete mandatory training and needed to do it outside of their contracted hours. Staff had not felt that this was a significant concern enough to raise it with their managers, however.

We saw an example of an appraisal which included sections where the individual could discuss both their health and wellbeing and individual development goals with their manager. However, appraisals for all sonographers had not been completed in a timely way.