Oak Vale Medical Centre Also known as Dr Michael Cranney & Partners

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.

We assessed all quality statements from this key question. At our last assessment, we rated this key question as good. The rating remains good following this assessment.

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 involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. Staff we spoke with or received feedback from demonstrated a caring and patient centred approach to their work.

Discussions with staff and observations of staff interactions indicated a caring, patient centred staff team.

Feedback from people who used the service was positive overall for being treated with kindness, empathy and compassion. The experience of people who used the service as indicated in the National GP Patient Survey showed that people felt listened to and were treated with care. For example, 88% of patients felt that during their last appointments the healthcare professional was very good or fairly good at treating them with care and concern (national average 86%) and 75% said the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to was good at considering their mental wellbeing during their last general practice appointment (national average 74%).

Staff displayed understanding and a non-judgemental attitude towards people. Staff told us they gave people appropriate and timely information to understand their care, treatment, or condition.

There were arrangements to ensure confidentiality in the reception area. For example, if people were distressed or wanted to speak to reception staff in confidence.

The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met their needs and preferences.

Patients’ individual needs and equality characteristics were understood, and services were provided to meet these. Patient communication needs were identified and met to enable them to be fully involved in their care.

Staff had been provided with training in equal opportunities and staff we spoke with told us how they ensured the individual communication needs of patients were known and accommodated.

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

The result of the National GP patient survey showed that 95% of respondents (national average 91%) felt that during their last appointment they were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment.

Staff and leaders told us how they responded to people’s immediate needs. Training and guidance were in place to ensure that people’s needs were prioritised and to identify people who required urgent attention or referral.

There was a system for triage of patients requesting an urgent appointment and this ensured people with immediate needs had access to the service.

Members of the team had been provided with training in basic life support including the signs and symptoms of sepsis and warning signs and protocols were displayed in treatment rooms.

People’s records reflected how their needs were to be met and indicated those who may need an immediate response from the service, such as people who were receiving care at the end of their lives.

Urgent referrals were followed up to ensure that people had received an appointment within the appropriate timescales.

Care-coordinators provided a direct link to the practice for people who may need additional support, for example due to illness or vulnerability.

The provider made staff welfare and wellbeing a priority and staff told us they felt well supported in their roles. This included providing the necessary resources and facilities for safe working, such as regular breaks and rest areas.

Staff were overall positive about working at the practice. They said they felt valued and supported by colleagues and leaders both professionally and personally. Staff overall said that the provider listened to them, responded to their needs and considered their individual circumstances/support needs and supported flexible working when required. We did note that some staff felt the provider did not always listen and act upon their feedback. This was discussed with members of the leadership team who told us that they had reintroduced whole staff meetings to ensure all staff felt listened to, were able to contribute their views and to generally improve the effectiveness of communication across the team.