Ballater 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. We reviewed National GP patient survey data collected between January and March 2025 and found patient satisfaction was either in line with or slightly below national averages. The percentage of respondents who answered positively were as follows: 76.9% said the healthcare professional was very good or fairly good at treating them with care and concern (national average was 85.6%); 66.9% responded positively to the overall experience of their GP practice (national average was 75.4%); 86.8% said they healthcare professional was good or fairly good at listening to them (national average was 86.9%); and 91.5% said they confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to (national average was 92.5%).

Arrangements were in place to promote patients’ privacy. Feedback shared directly with CQC was positive regarding people’s experiences of accessing care. Patients told us they found staff to be caring and approachable. We observed staff treating patients with respect.

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. This was demonstrated by the different methods of access to appointments available to patients.

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.

National GP patient survey data collected between January and March 2025 showed 86.7% of respondents felt they were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment. This was in line with national averages (91.2%).

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 patients and their carers to access advocacy and community-based services. For carers, this included support and signposting to carers 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.

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.

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

Feedback from staff shared with CQC and collected by the practice was positive about the service, with staff saying they felt valued by leaders, and were supported to deliver good care to patients.

We saw examples where reasonable adjustments had been made to support staff. There wasn’t a designated break room in the building, this had been raised by practice staff and leaders as an area for improvement.