The Willow Tree Surgery

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 in 2019 using the old methodology, we rated this key question as good. At this assessment, the rating has changed to requires improvement because we found issues with patient dignity, respect and not being treated as individuals.

This service scored 60 (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 did not always treat people with kindness, compassion, dignity and respect as indicated by the latest National GP Patient Survey which showed the practice had significantly lower levels of patient satisfaction of health and care experiences than the national and local averages. The results from the National GP Patient Survey and Healthwatch England survey showed people were not satisfied with service delivery, however the NHS Friends and Family Test, showed some patients were happy with the service received at this practice. Two patients who gave their feedback to CQC on the care received at this practice were positive in their comments. The percentage of respondents to the GP patient survey who responded positively to the overall experience of their GP practice was 55.7% (national average 74%, local average 74%). The practice did not have any system in place to identify patients in the last 12 months of their lives, but the principal GP informed us the patient population is well known to the staff, and they can respond to the patients’ needs as they arise.

The practice involved patients in decisions about their care and treatment. Some of the staff we spoke to told us that they would offer private rooms for privacy if patients asked for it. However, the building was old and conversations could be heard across the rooms. The practice respected the cultural needs and preferences of the patient population. Only 1 out of 8 staff file records we checked showed completion of Learning disability and Autistic People support training. The practice did not share any plans with us on how the other members of staff would complete the training.

The practice promoted people’s independence and signposted them to access advocacy and community-based services in liaison with a social prescriber. However, feedback from patients collected by the local health and social care champions and passed to CQC showed patients felt they could be better served if the GPs had more face-face appointments than telephone appointments and the health assessment done by a clinician rather than reception staff asking them questions over the phone. An example of the feedback given by patients was they did not always understand the reason for offered healthcare screening as they felt they would prefer to have the conditions they had monitored rather than what they might have.

The practice listened to and understood people’s needs and wishes. Staff we spoke to understood what to do in a medical emergency and how to recognise it. One patient’s feedback during the site visit was there was sometimes miscommunication because the reception staff did not understand the patient’s’ needs due to language barriers, as some of the staff did not have English as their first language.The experience of miscommunication left the patient distressed at the time because their needs were not understood.

The practice staff we spoke to said they were happy, and colleagues were supportive. Staff said they could raise concerns. The primary care network (PCN) recently completed a staff survey at the practice which showed mixed feedback with further analysis being undertaken to see if anything was needed to improve staff wellbeing.