Abington Park 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.

Staff treated people with kindness, respect, and compassion. Feedback from patients showed they felt listened to, supported, and involved in decisions about their care. Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity, adapting their approach to meet individual needs, including cultural, communication, and accessibility requirements. The practice encouraged independence and gave people choice and control over their care and treatment. Staff responded promptly to people’s immediate needs and demonstrated a commitment to providing personalised support. 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.

Measures were in place to promote and protect patients’ privacy, and data from the National GP Patient Survey showed that 91% of people felt listened to and treated with kindness. Staff demonstrated a sound understanding of their duties, and appropriate processes were in place to ensure that young people could exercise control over their privacy and determine the level of parental involvement in their care and decision-making.

Staff recognised the diverse needs of the people they cared for and provided personalised support. Patients told us they felt staff understood them as individuals and not just their medical needs. Staff adapted their approach and communication style to ensure information was clear and accessible.

The practice is accredited as Veteran Friendly and proactively identifies patients with a military background to raise awareness of available support services. It has also held and maintained Carer’s Silver Accreditation for the past 10 years and is currently working toward achieving Carer’s Gold Accreditation. The practice further demonstrated an understanding of patients’ personal, cultural, social, religious, and equality-related needs. For example, patient feedback highlighted its flexibility and respect in issuing death certificates within 24 hours to accommodate religious customs. Theservice 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. There was a process to share electronic care records with other local health and care professionals where required. The practice carried out its own survey, including, a friends and family survey sent to people following an appointment. The practice monitored this for reoccurring themes and acted depending on the nature of the concern.

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

Staff supported people to be involved in decisions about their care and treatment.The recent patient survey results show that 89% of patients felt the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to was good at listening to them during their last general practice appointment, which is above both the local ICS (Integrated Care System) result of 84% and the national result of 87%. In addition, 97% of patients felt the healthcare professional had all the information they needed about them, which exceeded the ICS result of 90% and the national result of 92%. They provided information in a way that people could understand and offered time for discussion so patients could consider their options. Interpreters and accessible communication formats were available when needed. Patients said they felt in control of their care and were encouraged to maintain their independence where possible. Staff had completed the relevant training required to promote independence. The practice website detailed how to access information in alternative formats (such as large print, easy read, audio recording or braille) or if an interpreter or advocate was required. The service had disabled access and hearing loops.

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 was responsive to people’s immediate needs and Leaders told us they regularly reviewed staffing to ensure there were enough clinicians to meet the needs of people. TheNational GP Patient Survey data shows that the practice was above national and local averages forpatients finding the reception and administrative team at the practice helpful as well as knowing what the next step would be within two days of contacting their GP practice.

The service had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. They listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. Lessons were learnt to continually identify and embed good practice.

People felt supported to raise concerns and felt staff treated them with compassion and understanding. Managers encouraged staff to raise concerns when things went wrong. During staff meetings, the whole team discussed and learnt from clinical issues that were raised. Staff felt there was an open culture, and that safety was a top priority. The provider had processes for staff to report incidents, near misses and safety events. There was a system to record and investigate complaints, and when things went wrong, staff apologised and gave people support. Key learning was often shared across the wider Primary Care Network (PCN) or Integrated Care Board (ICB) to support continuous improvement within the local health system.The provider also conducted an internal annual wellbeing survey, with results shared with staff members, and benefited from a very active wellbeing team within the PCN who supported both patients and staff. More than 70% of staff had been employed by the provider for over five years, reflecting a stable and experienced workforce. Members of the PPG felt the provider was responsive to feedback and took concerns seriously, this was evidenced in meeting minutes which highlighted how feedback led to meaningful service improvements. A culture of openness was fostered by managers, where staff felt empowered to speak up when issues occurred. Complaints and incidents were thoroughly reviewed, and learning was used to implement changes that enhanced the quality of care.