Ash Trees 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.

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.

Arrangements were in place to promote patients’ privacy. National GP Patient Survey data reflected people felt listened to and were treated with kindness. We saw that 86% of respondents stated the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to was good at treating them with care and concern during their last general practice appointment, the same as the national and local result. The survey found that 84% of respondents found the reception and administrative team at the practice helpful compared to 83% nationally and 86% locally. The practice’s Friends and Family Test survey results were positive.

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.

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.

The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. The recently established appointment and triage system enabled patients to choose convenient appointments to suit their needs and, where possible, with the clinician of their choice. Vulnerable patients were allocated to senior GPs to improve the continuity of their care.

Staff helped patients and their carers to access advocacy and community-based services. The practice had established links with community memory support groups.

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.

The practice had implemented a new system of triage and prioritising need for their different types of appointments, including on-the-day and face-to-face appointments. This system had only been in place a few months at the time of inspection, but the practice was able to show how this was an improvement from the previous system. They reported it had reduced the 8am rush to call the practice by telephone and better targeted persons with the greatest need and by the most appropriate approach.

Staff had guides and flow charts to support their decision-making, and which enabled them to direct patients to the best services to meet their needs. They also had access to useful information around medical conditions and ailments which enabled them to refer patients to appropriate clinicians, to Accident and Emergency, or to a pharmacy. GPs triaged all requests and made decisions about which patients should be seen urgently. Urgent on the day appointments were embargoed to ensure there was availability for those who needed to be seen straightaway. The practice reviewed data about appointment availability and usage to adapt and respond to the demand.

Staff we spoke with knew the process for referral to emergency support, including mental health crisis teams and other sources of community support. The practice was effective at focusing resources to meet the immediate needs and demand of patients.

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.

Members of the team had been provided with training in basic life support and the signs and symptoms of sepsis.

The service consistently cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and was effective at supporting and enabling staff to deliver person-centred care. The practice had undertaken staff surveys to understand the experiences of their staff groups. They had acted upon feedback and made changes to improve the experience for their staff, such as improving the estates by decorating, improving communication and feedback and focusing on wellbeing by introducing an employee assistance programme and wellbeing initiatives such as wellbeing walks and social events.

Staff told us they were valued by leaders. Leaders were well respected and accessible. There were resources and facilities for safe working, such as regular breaks and rest areas. Staff reported being supported if they were struggling at work and that there were flexible arrangements to support family and caring commitments and for those living with health issues or disabilities. Reasonable adjustments were in place to facilitate staff to achieve their best at work and the service recognised individual’s strengths and placed them in roles that best utilised those strengths. They provided opportunities to support the professional and personal development of staff. Managers engaged staff to co-produce the practice vision and values to foster a culture of engagement and belonging; staff view this positively.