The 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.

People were treated with kindness and compassion. Staff protected their privacy and dignity. They treated them as individuals and supported their preferences. People had choice in their care and treatment. The service supported staff wellbeing.

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.

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. Staff who acted as chaperones had received appropriate training and could describe the process, they followed which included recording in people’s records that a chaperone had been present during a consultation.

National GP Patient Survey data reflected that people felt listened to and were treated with kindness. Information from the National GP patient survey (30/12/24 to 1/4/25) showed:

• 43.5% responded positively to the overall experience of their GP service. (National average 75.4%.)
• 86.2% of respondents stated that during their last appointment the health care professional was very good or fairly good at listening to them. (National average 86.9%.)
• 84.5% of respondents consider the healthcare professional was very good or fairly good at treating them with care and concern. (National average 85.6%.)
• 91.1.% of respondents had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw. (National average 92.5%.)

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.

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

Staff helped people and their carers to access advocacy and community-based services.

Information from the National GP patient survey (30/12/24 to 1/4/25) showed:

• 84.4% of respondents said they were involved in decisions about care and treatment. (National average 91.2%.)

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 and crisis teams.

Staff knew how to identify when a patient was deteriorating and what actions to take.

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

The service had conducted twice yearly staff surveys. Following feedback from staff surveys, the service had started celebrating and recognising long service of staff. Staff told us leaders valued them. 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 events were established within the service and service wide meetings included sessions on non-clinical focussed areas, such as staff financial wellbeing and planning for retirement. This also included a free follow up appointment with the organisation that delivered the session, to enable staff to discuss individual needs.