The Willows Medical Centre Also known as Affinity Care

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 the service met people’s needs, and staff treated people equally and without discrimination. The service provided information people could understand. People received fair and equal treatment and staff were trained to understand people’s needs.

People who used the service were supported to live healthier lives. The practice understood their patient population and they identified where they could make changes to support people. People were able to book routine and on the day appointments. The practice took complaints and other patient feedback seriously and learnt from them to improve the quality of care.

At our last inspection, 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.

We did not look at Person-centred Care during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Care provision, Integration and continuity during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Providing Information during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

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. The practice could evidence examples of sharing information with their people. This included dementia notice boards in both the main and branch sites.

There were systems to record and investigate complaints. Staff were aware of where they should direct people who wanted to make a complaint. The complaints policy was comprehensive and complaint responses to people contained signposting to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman. The practice website also contained information on ways in which a patient could complain, which included being able to submit a complaint through a webform. Complaints were shared with the relevant team members and learning was evident.

The service made sure people could access the care, support and treatment they needed when they needed it. The service offered a range of appointments from 8am till 6pm Monday to Friday. People were able to book appointments through a multitude of different avenues including by phone, walking into the practice or through an online digital triage system. When contacting the practice, the reception team navigated the people request and booked the most appropriate appointment for them. Receptionists were trained to direct people to other services and help them to navigate these.

National GP Patient Survey data indicators show 31% of people find it easy to get through to the GP practice by phone; the national average is 50%. The provider identified their booking system was not as effective as they would have liked and were implementing a new system to improve services for patients

Staff and leaders actively listened to information about people who were most likely to experience inequality in experience or outcomes and tailored their care, support, and treatment in response to this. Staff treated people equally and without discrimination.

Reasonable adjustments were made for people who experienced difficulties accessing services. For example, private rooms, translation services and a hearing loop was available. people

Longer appointments were available if needed.

The provider had multiple outreach avenues through the Community partnership newsletters. This included collaborations between various health care providers, community centres and non-profit organisations. Their newsletter had information on bereavement groups, gentle exercise classes for pain management and a wellbeing telephone network.

Leaders proactively sought ways to address barriers to improving people’s experience. Staff understood the importance of providing an inclusive approach to care and made adjustments to support equity in people’s experience and outcomes.

We did not look at Planning for the future during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.