Hednesford Medical Practice

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

People were involved in decisions about their care. The service provided information people could understand. People knew how to give feedback and were confident the service took it seriously and acted on it. The service was easy to access and worked to eliminate discrimination. People received fair and equal care and treatment. The service worked to reduce health and care inequalities through training and feedback. People were involved in planning their care and understood options around choosing to withdraw or not receive care.

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.

Care plans reflected physical, mental, emotional, and social needs of patients including those related to protected characteristics under the Equality Act. Our review of clinical records showed 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.

The practice offered non-digital routes for access for those who required this. The practice telephone lines had options to speak to a person, and patients could complete paper forms at reception or have staff support filling to fill in the online form.

The practice endeavoured to use plain language to their patients within their letters or texts including confirmation of their understanding and in the provision of next steps.

The practice monitored its patients use of urgent care, contacts with NHS 111 and use of out of hours services and of appropriate information sharing arrangements.

The provider supported their patient requests for home visits including the use of the local ‘Acute Home Visiting’ service. This service involved a healthcare professional who would visit the patient at home. They worked closely with the patient’s usual GP practice and aimed to help people feel better at home and avoid going to hospital when it was not needed.

The practice-maintained equality and diversity policies with staff in receipt of appropriate training.

The provider completed numerous clinical and non-clinical audits to review for example, urgent referrals, patient death audits and palliative and frailty registers were maintained and discussed at regular meetings.

The provider held multi-disciplinary meetings with community teams including local hospice staff. They worked with community pharmacy, mental health and social care teams as well as maintaining secondary care shared care agreements.

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 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 the community healthcare provider.

The practice worked with their primary care network (PCN) a collaboration of 7 practices. They worked actively together including work on capacity and patient access. They worked with non-GP providers as part of an integrated neighbourhood team.

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.

Patient needs were electronically coded at registration and opportunistically should changes arise. The practice staff told us they could offer large print, easy read, request braille, British Sign Language interpreters, language line services, enable email or text only responses, longer appointments and carer or advocate involvement. Third party authorisation was sought from patients in respect of consent.

The practice offered hearing loop support, a chaperone service, a quiet room for confidentiality and a microphone available at reception.

The practice complied with its website accessibility statement and compliance with public sector accessibility regulations and alternatives offered if patients could not use digital services.

The practice had considered digital exclusion safeguards; this included the offer of reception staff completing bookings on behalf of patients via phone or in person. Text message alternatives for those without mobiles, included letters and phone calls. Paper or telephone invitations for long term condition reviews where preferred and this method electronically recorded.

The practice maintained a gender transitioning support policy for staff guidance and support.

The practice 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 PPG ran projects supported by the GPs on ‘gut health and inflammation’ and assisted patients in taking blood pressures in the waiting room and encouraging patients to live a healthier lifestyle.

Patient feedback systems included:

• Written complaint/compliment.
• Verbally on the telephone
• Online
• Face to face at the reception desk
• Via patient feedback forms
• Google review capture cards
• Via the NHS review website
• Friends and Family texts
• National GP survey annual reviews
• Via Patient Participation Group (PPG)

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 made sure that people could access the care, support and treatment they needed when they needed it.

In response to the National GP Patient Survey data and from feedback from members of the community the provider had identified changes to improve access to the service. For example, they 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.

From April 2023, the practice had been consistently monitoring telephone data to identify peaks in patient demand. They introduced an additional reception team member at 8am to handle incoming calls. Over the subsequent six months, the average wait time reduced to 5.99 minutes, almost halving the wait. The practice now scheduled 3 team members on the phones for the first 2 hours each morning. Patients were requested to call for test results and other non‑urgent queries after 12.30 pm. From October 2023, the service offered the addition of a long-term locum GP each working Monday, this provided an additional 31 appointments per day. An extra reception team member was rostered 8am to11am daily to manage peak inbound demand. However, the impact of the changes and improvements made had yet to be reflected in the practices National GP Survey results. For example, 50% of patients who responded to the survey said they found it easy to get through to this GP practice by phone, when compared to the local integrated care board (ICS) result of 57% and national result, 53%.

The Patient Participation Group (PPG) had promoted the use of the NHS App and had supported patients to request prescriptions and view records digitally.

The practice had launched an online consultation system via their practice website and advised that further website improvements were to be launched in October 2025.

In response to the practice findings, they had introduced a weekly ‘Did Not Attend’ (DNA) text to patients who had missed their appointment. This system was introduced to increase appointment availability for all patients. Should a patient DNA 3 or more times in a 12-month period they would receive a polite warning letter from the practice.

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.

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. 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’sexperience and outcomes. The provider had processes to ensure people could register at the practice, including those in vulnerable circumstances such as homeless people and Travellers. 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.

The practice had reviewed and took account of its patient demographic in provision of GP service planning and its workforce. They had worked alongside Cannock Villages and Rugeley primary care networks to provide weight management and winter pressure services.

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

Our records review showed people were supported to consider their wishes for their end-of-life care, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This information was shared with other services when necessary.