Belmont Medical Centre

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.

There was a culture of kindness and respect within the practice. The practice always treated people with empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. The National GP Patient Survey Data demonstrated that 86% of respondents felt they were treated with care and concern during their last appointment, which was in line with the national average. Staff gave examples about how they treated patients with kindness and compassion to support them. Staff demonstrated that they considered patients specific needs and wishes. Arrangements were in place to promote patients’ privacy. For example, private areas were available if patients wanted a quieter area, chaperones were available, privacy curtains were in clinical rooms. During the site visit, we observed staff being helpful and polite to patients and a culture of kindness and respect between colleagues.

The practice treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. Personal, cultural, social, religious and equality characteristic needs were understood and met. Staff had completed equality and diversity training. To accommodate individual needs, patient requirements were recorded on the patient record such as communication needs such as translation and interpretation support, which included British Sign Language could be organised. For patients that had difficulty using technology, information could be printed on paper if this was preferred. We asked patients to ‘Give Feedback on Care’ and we received positive responses. For example, patients felt staff were personable and they weren’t treating them as a number.

The practice promoted people’s independence and supported them to make decisions about their care, treatment and wellbeing. They provided patients with information and guidance to enable them to make informed decisions about their care.National GP Patient Survey data showed that 94% of the respondents felt involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment during their last general practice appointment, which was higher than the national average of 91%. 65% of respondentswere offered a choice of time or day when they last tried to make a general practice appointment, which was higher than the national average of 54%. Staff ensured that all necessary information was accessible between services to ensure patient preferences were met to support and maximise patient’s independence and outcomes from care and treatment.

The practice 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 we spoke with knew how to respond when a patient needed urgent attention and knew the processes to follow to ensure emergency support was given. Not all staff were up to date with their basic life support and sepsis training, however following our onsite visit, the management team made arrangements to ensure all staff completed sepsis training by adding “Sepsis Awareness” training to the staff training profile. There was a system for appointment triage that ensured people with immediate needs had access to services. There was a duty GP that reviewed people’s queries that was supported by an advanced nurse practitioner. Various appointments were available such as face to face or by telephone. The social prescribers could also offer support and signpost to other relevant services to meet the needs of patients.

The practice cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff. Leaders told us they supported and valued their colleagues. The vast majority of staff feedback we received was positive. For example, staff told us they felt they worked well as a team, and colleagues supported one another. Leaders had taken steps to recognise and meet the wellbeing needs of staff. For example, we were provided with evidence of a practice Health and Wellbeing policy which gave information on the provision of initiatives which available to staff. These included encouraging staff to remove themselves from their working environment at lunchtimes. A range of physical fitness classes or walking groups were available or staff were encouraged to take their lunch together in the practice conference room.