The Palms Medical Centre

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

We looked for evidence that the service met people’s needs, and that staff treated people equally and without discrimination.

At our last assessment on 22nd June 2022, we rated this key question as Requires Improvement because National GP Patient Survey scores were low. At this assessment, the rating has changed and is now Good because the practice has implemented a range of measures to improve access and patient experience, including restructuring call-handling arrangements, increasing staff capacity to answer calls during peak times, introducing a new telephony system to monitor and manage call performance, and actively responding to patient feedback. Internal patient survey results and feedback from patients using the CQC website indicate improvements in ease of making appointments, demonstrating that the practice has effectively addressed previous concerns.

This service scored 71 (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 made sure people were at the centre of their care and treatment choices and they decided, in partnership with people, how to respond to any relevant changes in people’s needs. For example, following a diagnosis of a long-term condition such as diabetes, patients were offered a follow-up appointment with a nurse to discuss their condition in more depth, ask questions, and ensure they fully understood their care and management plan.

Care plans reflected the physical, mental, emotional, and social needs of patients, including those related to protected characteristics under the Equality Act. We looked at a random sample of care plans and found patients were supported to understand their condition and were involved in planning for their care needs. They were also involved in decisions about their care, and the practice made use of their social prescriber to ensure that patients’ social needs were addressed alongside their clinical needs.

The service understood the diverse health and care needs of people and their local communities, so care was joined-up, flexible and supported choice and continuity.

We saw the practice worked in partnership with other services including their Primary Care Network to meet the needs of its patient population. The practice had tailored its services to meet the diverse needs of its community, for example, building relationships with community groups to promote the take up of screening programmes. There were established mechanisms for engaging with community healthcare providers, all of whom had the practice’s bypass telephone number for ease of access.

The service supplied appropriate, accurate and up-to-date information in formats that were tailored to individual needs.

Information to promote the take up of screening and immunisation programmes was available in a range of languages. The practice had access to interpreter services, including British Sign Language. Information provided by the service met the Accessible Information Standard. Patients were informed as to how to access their care records.

The service made it easy for people to share feedback and ideas, or raise complaints about their care, treatment and support. They involved people in decisions about their care and told them what had changed as a result. This was supported by the 2025 National GP Patient Survey, where 82% of respondents stated they were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment during their last appointment. However, only 73% of respondents stated that the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to was good at listening to them during their last appointment, this was comparable to the local average of 82% but below the national average of 87%. The practice conducted their own patient survey where there were 199 respondents, 90% of whom answered yes to feeling that the last healthcare professional they saw was good at listening to them.

We saw complaints were managed in line with the practice’s policy. Learning from complaints was evident and staff were able to identify changes made as a result of patient feedback, including complaints.

The service aimed to ensure that people could access the care, support and treatment they required, when they required it. However, results from the 2025 National GP Patient Survey indicated a continuing downward trend in patient satisfaction in relation to telephone access. Of the 118 respondents, only 18% reported that it was very or fairly easy to get through to the practice by phone, which was significantly below the local and national averages.

In response to the declining National GP Patient Survey results, and feedback from members of the community, the provider implemented a range of measures over time to improve access and patient satisfaction. For example, most recently the practice restructured its call-handling arrangements so that telephone calls were no longer managed solely by front desk staff. Additional staff were allocated to answer calls during peak times, increasing the capacity to respond to incoming calls more quickly and reducing delays caused by competing reception duties. This change was intended to increase the proportion of calls answered and improve the overall patient experience.

The practice also undertook an internal patient survey, mirroring the National GP Patient Survey questions. Of the 193 patients who responded, 54% stated that it was easy or very easy to contact the practice, indicating an improvement when compared with the national survey findings. Additionally, of the four patients who used the CQC website to give feedback on their care, three specifically mentioned the ease of making an appointment, including getting through to the practice by phone, while the fourth patient did not comment on this aspect but was still complimentary about the service.

Following the introduction of a new telephony system, the practice monitored telephone access through its call handling system and reviewed call performance data to understand patient demand and access to the service. We reviewed call activity data provided by the practice for January 2026, which had been analysed on a weekly basis. The data showed that during January 2026 the practice received 2,653 incoming calls, of which 2,227 were successfully connected to the practice team, representing an overall connection rate of approximately 83.9%. This showed an improvement when compared with data from April to June 2025, when the practice received 11,303 calls and 74% were successfully connected. These monitoring arrangements enabled the practice to track trends over time and continue to review the effectiveness of actions taken to improve access.

The practice also had extended appointments for people with a learning disability. People could access the service to suit their needs, for example online, in person and by telephone. Treatment rooms were available on the ground floor with accessible toilets.

Staff and leaders actively listened to information about people who are most likely to experience inequality in experience or outcomes and tailored their care, support and treatment in response to this. As a result, they ensured that individual needs were considered at the point of booking appointments, using the alerting function on the clinical system to arrange interpreters, allow for extended appointment times, support patients to book with a clinician of their preferred gender where appropriate, and ensure resources such as the sign book were readily accessible to support patients with a learning disability to express themselves during appointments.

Feedback provided by people using the service, both to the provider as well as to CQC, was positive.

Staff treated people equally and without discrimination, we saw that all staff had completed mandatory equality, diversity and inclusion training. Leaders proactively sought ways to address any barriers to improving people’s experience and worked with local organisations, including within the voluntary sector, to address any local health inequalities. Staff understood the importance of providing an inclusive approach to care and made adjustments to support equity in people’s experience and outcomes. The practice also made health information available in different languages, including information about cervical screening, immunisations and the flu vaccine, to help ensure patients could access and understand important health messages.

The provider had processes to ensure people could register at the practice, including those in vulnerable circumstances such as homeless people and Travellers. They registered people experiencing homelessness using the practice address where appropriate, so that appointment letters could be sent to the practice and staff could then contact patients to share the details. Staff used appropriate systems to capture and review feedback from people using the service, including those who did not speak English or have access to the internet.

People were supported to plan for important life changes, so they had enough time to make informed decisions about their future, including at the end of their life.

We viewed a sample of care plans which showed people were supported to consider their wishes for their end-of-life care, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and where appropriate carers were involved in these discussions to support planning and decision making in line with patient wishes. This information was shared with other services when necessary.