Pembroke House Surgery

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• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

We assessed all quality statements in the caring key question.

At our last assessment, we rated this key question as good. At this assessment, the rating remains the same. We observed the service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. Staff protected their privacy and dignity. They treated them as individuals and supported their preferences. People had choices 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 understood and respected the personal, cultural, social and religious needs of people. Staff treated people as individuals and were able to describe adjustments they made to support them. Additional needs, such as communication or necessary physical adjustments, were recorded on clinical records to alert staff. For example, staff gave an example of how they adjusted the service’s environment in anticipation of the appointment of a patient who was sensitive to light. The 2025 National GP Patient Survey data reflected 94% of respondents felt they were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment. People’s wishes were recorded in their care records. The service could not secure the live session (Part 2) of the training due to limited availability nationally. To promote the staff’s awareness and confidence in the needs of people with a learning disability, the service developed their own bridging session on learning disability and neurodiversity co-delivered by their clinical learning disability lead, who was also the learning disability lead of the local ICB, and a PPG trainer with lived experience. However, there were 82% of staff completed the online training (Part 1) for learning disability and autism. This was covered in the action plan for oversight of mandatory training completion.

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. Staff considered people’s communication needs and barriers to care and made adjustment to support and maximise people’s independence. People could access information in the service, such as posters and leaflets and on the service’s website to support them to make healthier choices. The service had disabled access and hearing loops to promote independence.

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.

Staff explained how people’s needs were prioritised, and they had received appropriate training to recognise when urgent help or support was required. The appointment triage system ensured people with immediate needs had access to services. For example, phone numbers of vulnerable people were registered as priority numbers so their calls could override the call queue and be answered more promptly. Staff we spoke with knew the process for referral to emergency support. The service rehearsed medical emergency scenarios on a training day, involving both clinical and non-clinical staff, to ensure the staff were familiar with the procedures.

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

Staff felt supported by leaders and could approach them at any time for advice, guidance or concerns. The service supported the staff in professional development and career progression. For example, a receptionist was promoted to become a supervisor, and a phlebotomist was supported in becoming a social prescriber. Many staff members shared examples of how the leaders supported flexible working arrangements to accommodate personal and family needs, including phased returns to work following periods of absence to help individuals readjust. They also shared examples of how the leaders maintained frequent contact with them to support and check in about their well-being when they were off work due to personal and family circumstances.

The service held a weekly drop-in session when one of the leaders was available to listen to staff feedback or ideas. Staff provided various examples of how improvements were made based on their feedback. For example, the leaders accommodated staff’s requests by giving them more time to complete their administrative work. Leaders had taken steps to recognise and meet the wellbeing needs of staff. The service had a recognition scheme where exemplary staff behaviour was recognised and displayed on an appreciation board. The service enrolled in an employee assistance programme to support the staff wellbeing through counselling, mental health support and lifestyle benefits. The service organised team-building activities and festive social events for staff to enjoy.