Marine Medical Group

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.

Arrangements were in place to promote patients’ privacy. Staff we spoke with understood Gillick competency and there was a process to ensure young adults had control over their own privacy and the amount of parental involvement in managing their care and support.

National GP Patient Survey data reflected people felt listened to and were treated with kindness. Of those who responded, 85.7% of patients stated that the last time they had a general practice appointment, the healthcare professional was good or very good at listening to them (30/12/2024 to 1/04/2025) compared to the national average of 86.9%.

Of those who responded, 85.9% of patients stated that the last time they had a general practice appointment, the healthcare professional was good or very good at treating them with care and concern, compared to the national average of 85.6%.

Of those who responded, 93.5% of patients stated that during their last GP appointment they had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to. Compared to the national average of 92.5%.

The practice provided us with 10 thank you cards received and an email. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and spoke of the kind and caring staff and the difference this had made for patients and their families.

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.

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.

The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including patients with a learning disability, offering longer appointments when needed. The practice had good access for disabled patients including disabled car spaces and a hearing loop.

Social Prescribers had worked with patients who had not attended cancer screening. This was completed on an individual basis to establish any barriers which could be removed to help uptakes. Breast screening figures due to be published soon, are predicted to show a 50% increase in uptake within the community.

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

The practice identified and met people’s communication needs to ensure they were fully involved in their care, with translation services and accessible information available when required.

Staff helped patients and their carers to access advocacy and community-based services. They made full use of their 2 social prescribers to ensure patients social care needs were met.

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. This was supported with an on-call doctor on duty each day at the practice until 6.30pm to help with triage and with available appointments to be allocated. There was also a paramedic with appointments available all day on the day. Urgent same day requests and home visits were appropriately allocated, if possible, with continuity of clinicians for patients. We saw patients were appropriately referred to Community Urgent Eyecare Services (CUES) to treat sudden onset eye problems which staff told us eased the demand on urgent practice appointments. The Community Urgent Eyecare Service (CUES) provides urgent assessment, treatment or referral for sudden onset eye problems such as flashes, floaters, vision loss or minor eye injuries. This is an NHS service provided by accredited optometrists (also commonly known as opticians). 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.

Staff were positive about working at the practice and told us they were valued, respected and listened to by leaders. Staff described being part of one team irrespective of their role and that they all helped each other when needed.

Leaders had taken steps to recognise and meet the wellbeing needs of staff, which included the necessary resources and facilities for safe working, such as regular breaks and rest areas. Staff reported being supported if they were struggling at work and leaders recognised if they had any specific needs.

We saw team building events were established within the practice. Staff told us they enjoyed social events on a regular basis both for team building and for other events such as special birthdays, staff leaving events and Christmas celebrations.