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

2026 National GP Patient Survey data reflected that people felt listened to and were treated with kindness. For example, the percentage of respondents who stated that during their last appointment, the healthcare professional was very good or fairly good at listening to them was 97% compared with the national average of 87%. The percentage of respondents who stated that during their last appointment they had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to was 100% compared to the national average of 92%. This was reflective of the feedback we had from people we spoke with during our assessment.

Staff we spoke with understood Gillick competency and there was a process to ensure young adults had control over their own privacy and the amount of parental involvement in managing their care and support.

The service 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.

People’s personal, cultural, social, religious and equality characteristics needs were understood and met. People’s communication needs were met to enable them to be fully involved in their care. This included the opportunity to use translation services, including British Sign Language.

The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

The practice had access to a social prescriber via the Primary Care Network (PCN), who encouraged and supported patients and their carers to access advocacy and community-based services.

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.

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.

A duty doctor was always available to provide advice and guidance whenever necessary.

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

Staff told us they were valued by leaders. Leaders had taken steps to recognise and meet the wellbeing needs of staff, which included the necessary resources and facilities for safe working, such as regular breaks and rest areas. Staff reported being supported if they were struggling at work. We saw team building days were established within the practice.

Leaders had an open-door policy, and we heard of positive conversations taking place, with support provided to staff during difficult times, reasonable adjustments being made to workstations and flexible working requests being accepted.