The 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.

At our last assessment, we rated this key question as good. At this assessment, the rating remains the same.

This service scored 70 (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. National GP Patient Survey data reflected people felt listened to and were treated with kindness. 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.

The practice worked closely with their local community team and services to provide support. For example, they had worked with the food bank to offer training to staff to enable them to support people to access health care and register with the practice.

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 maintained an up-to-date register of carers so that targeted support could be offered. For example, text messages reminding carers of their eligibility for free flu vaccinations, health checks and providing access to a digital resource for carers.

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 patients and their carers to access advocacy and community-based services. The practice was an Armed Forces veteran friendly accredited GP Practice. As part of the health commitments of the Armed Forces Covenant, they had an Armed Forces community champion, and the team were trained to understand the health needs of Armed Forces veterans and the wider Armed Forces community. The practice website had a wide range of information about local services available to this cohort of patients.

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 GP led 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 the 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 however, some staff had mixed views about how leaders valued them.

Staff felt their immediate team leaders were supportive and listened to them, but not all staff felt management had always been supportive and they had not always felt listened to and involved.

Staff acknowledged that they had been through significant change in the last 2 years and there had been a high staff turnover. They reported that as staffing levels had improved the practice was now more stable, and improvements had been made to meet the wellbeing needs of staff, which included the necessary resources and facilities for safe working, such as regular breaks. Staff reported being supported if they were struggling at work due to personal circumstances.

The provider had recognised that there had been low staff morale and a high staff turnover. They had been working to improve and had completed staff surveys and implemented an action plan. This had included staff well being protected time learning events, bonuses and vouchers and use of external resources to support improvement in communication.