Welling Medical Practice

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 inspection in September 2021, we rated this key question as Requires improvement. At this assessment, the rating has changed to Good.

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.

The service always treated patients 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 patients felt listened to (practice score: 84%, national average: 87%) and were treated with kindness (practice score: 83%, national average: 86%). 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 patients as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met patient’s needs and preferences. They took account of patient’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 patient’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Staff helped patients and their carers to access advocacy and community-based services. Staff referred patients to social prescribing and had a wide range of leaflets available for patients to access in the reception areas at both sites.

The service listened to and understood patient’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to patient’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

There was a system for appointment triage that ensured patients with immediate needs had access to services. Staff we spoke with knew the process for referral to emergency support, and how to recognise signs of patients who may be acutely unwell. The reception areas had sufficient visibility over the waiting areas to identify any potential deteriorating situations quickly.

Staff were supported to deliver person-centred care. However, there were mixed reviews from staff within the service regarding how they felt their well-being was prioritised.

Some staff told us they did not feel valued by leaders. Leaders had not completed any staff surveys to seek feedback from those working in the service. Some staff reported they did not feel they were always supported if they were struggling at work; for example, in times they had an increased workload. However, some staff members spoke positively about the support they received from leaders within the practice and their approachability.