Wolstanton Medical Centre

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

We looked for evidence that staff involved people in decisions about their care and treatment and provided them advice and support. Staff regularly reviewed people’s care and worked with other services to achieve this.

At our last assessment, we rated this key question as outstanding. At this assessment, the rating has changed to good.

This service scored 83 (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 made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

Reception staff were very aware of the needs of the local community. The service had developed a reasonable adjustment questionnaire to enable people to identify and share what help and support they needed within the practice. This supported staff to the most appropriate care and treatment. Reception staff used digital flags within the care records system to highlight any specific individual needs, such as the requirement for longer appointments or for a translator to be present.

People felt extremely involved in any assessment of their needs and felt confident that staff understood their individual and cultural needs. For example, results from the National GP Patient Survey found 98% of respondents were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment during their last general practice appointment. This was above the national average of 91%.

Feedback from people who used the service was overwhelmingly positive. They commented that all staff were professional, friendly, helpful and reassuring and staff cared about people. People felt involved in any assessment of their needs and felt confident that staff understood their individual and cultural needs.

Effective systems were in place to ensure people attended for long-term conditions reviews and blood monitoring. Staff checked people’s health, care, and wellbeing needs during health reviews. The practice arranged home visits for people unable to attend the practice for their long-term condition review. Clinical staff used templates when conducting care reviews to support the review of people’s wider health and wellbeing. The provider had effective systems to identify people with previously undiagnosed conditions. Our remote clinical searches did not identify any people with a possible missed diagnosis of diabetes. The records we looked at for people with diabetes whose blood glucose levels were high demonstrated they had received appropriate and effective checks and reviews.

Staff could refer people with social needs, such as those experiencing social isolation or housing difficulties, to a social prescriber and / or health and wellbeing coach.

The service planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

Systems were in place to ensure staff were up to date with evidence-based guidance and legislation. Clinical records we saw demonstrated care was provided in line with current guidance, and the service followed up people with asthma prescribed 2 or more doses of rescue steroids for an exacerbation of their asthma in a 12-month period appropriately.

The service worked well across teams and services to support people. They shared thorough assessments of people’s needs when they moved between different services, so people only needed to tell their story once.

Staff had access to the information they needed to appropriately assess, plan, and deliver people’s care, treatment, and support. The practice worked with other services to ensure continuity of care, including where clinical tasks were delegated to other services.

Staff engagement and sharing of information was enabled through regular cross sector meetings and leaders’ meetings. The service worked with the local authority children’s safeguarding team and the primary care network led frailty team.

Representatives from the care homes where the practice delivered care and treatment were positive about the service provided to people living in the home and told us that the service was responsive to their requests. They told us weekly visits / telephone calls helped staff to manage any queries or concerns and was extremely effective and person centred.

Feedback from staff was very positive about how teams and different staff groups worked together to provide care and treatment. They reported that staff were supportive of all colleagues within the service.

The service always supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. The service supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support.

Staff focussed on identifying risks to people’s health, including those in the last 12 months of their lives, people at risk of developing a long-term condition and those with caring responsibilities. Staff supported national priorities and initiatives to improve population health, including stopping smoking and tackling obesity.

One of the GP partners was the Health Inequalities Lead for the local primary care network (PCN). They had developed a PCN Health Inequalities initiative, which ran from 2022-24 with the aim of reducing cardiovascular risk factors among people with learning disabilities. This had wide reaching benefits and actions across the PCN. The impact of the initiative was demonstrated through 4 people stopping smoking, 5 people supported to enter weight loss programmes, 21 signposting into walking and cycling projects and 1 person attended cervical screening for the first time.

Staff told us when completing long-term conditions reviews they took a holistic view and focused on lifestyle as well as management of the condition. They worked with people to help them understand how their lifestyle impacted on their condition. Staff shared an example of the positive impact made on a person’s life when they worked with them on correct medication usage and lifestyle changes.

People were referred to the social prescriber of health and wellbeing coach for additional support. The service was aware that research showed regular walking significantly improves mental and physical wellbeing by reducing stress, anxiety and social isolation. They had embraced this and worked in collaboration with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and the service had funded 5 walks a year since 2022. This has enabled 16 people registered with the practice to be taken by minibus to local wildlife reserves and to have a guided walk by a Staffordshire Wildlife Trust guide. The service told us this had led to people forming more social relationships.

New patients and carers were offered health checks.

The service routinely monitored all people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they fully met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves.

The service met the World Health Organisation (WHO) target for childhood immunisations, with all 5 indicators achieving over 95% (2024/2025). Follow up systems for non-attendees and flexibility around appointment times supported the high level of uptake.

Uptake of cervical screening (June 2024) for women aged 50 to 64 years old was 79.3%, comparable to the national target of 80%, although for women aged 25 to 49 years old uptake was below target at 76.1%. The service had taken action to improve uptake through a range of measures. These included the introduction of postcards with detailed information about the screening programme sent to people who did not book or attend appointments, dedicated cervical screening reminder texts and a dedicated cervical screening appointment line for booking appointments.

The service had introduced similar postcards to promote uptake for people who did not engage with bowel cancer screening. The uptake for both bowel cancer screening and breast screening were both above the national average.

To ensure that all people with learning disabilities received their annual review in a timely manner, the practice had implemented a number of actions demonstrating the practice’s commitment to patient safety, personalised care, and continuous quality improvement. These actions included oversight by the inhouse learning disabilities team and dedicated practice-based care coordinator, the introduction of an updated questionnaire to gather information prior to the review thus reducing the time spent in the face-to-face consultation and flexible appointment scheduling, including home visits for annual reviews if that was the person’s preference. The questionnaire had been developed with input from a person with a learning disability to ensure it was fit for purpose before implementing. Staff had received appropriate training on learning disabilities and autism. Staff told us people with a learning disability engaged positively with their annual reviews and 93% (51 out of 55) reviews had been completed for 2025/26.

The service provided care and treatment to a care home which supported people with learning disability or autism. The care home representative told us a small number of clinicians visited, which had enabled services users to develop a good relationship, which helped them to feel at ease, and comfortable. The relationship with the practice staff supported the service users to receive any treatment or tests they required, which had a positive impact on their health and wellbeing.

The service told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.

Staff understood and applied legislation relating to consent. Capacity and consent were clearly recorded. Do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions were appropriate and were made in line with relevant legislation.

The service discussed and completed the documentation for people who lived in care homes. Care home staff told us the service held regular discussion with residents and their families when changes occurred, or a person’s health deteriorated.

Where appropriate, people were offered a chaperone for care and treatment. During our site visit we saw chaperone posters were displayed to inform people of this service. Staff providing this service were provided with training.