Drs Jones & Blaylock Also known as Throckley Primary Care

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 80 (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.

We looked at 6 thank you cards received, which were positive and thanked the staff for their support, efficiency, good care and kindness.

The National GP Patient Survey results in the caring category were consistently above the national average for example:

Patients who stated that the last time they had a general practice appointment, the healthcare professional was good or very good at listening to them (01/01/2024 to 31/03/2024), was 95.5% (national average, 86.7%).

Patients who 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, was 91.5% (national average, 85.3%).

Patients who stated that during their last GP appointment they had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to, was 95.8% (national average, 92.3%).

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 carers identified via their register.

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. This included signposting to Carers UK and the local community hall which holds a variety of activities for carers each week.

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 to help with triage and with available appointments to be allocated. Urgent same day requests and home visits were discussed at the daily clinical meeting to appropriately allocate doctors, if possible, with continuity of clinicians for patients.

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 told us without exception they were valued by leaders, and some said they felt they were part of a family. Staff described being part of one team irrespective of their role and they all helped each other when needed. We saw how leaders made staff feel valued, relaxed and included as part of a whole team that worked together to provide their aim of flexible, holistic and patient centred care to their patient community.

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 a pleasant rest area. All staff were positive about how management and lead GPs supported them with their wellbeing at work. They said it was a friendly workplace which made the work feel rewarding. Staff reported being supported if they were struggling at work.

We saw team building days 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 dos and Christmas celebrations.