Holmcroft Surgery

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

This is the first inspection for this service since its registration with CQC. We looked for evidence that the service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity, and respect.

We observed the environment to be suitable. There were privacy curtains in clinical rooms and trained chaperones were available when required. Staff we spoke with understood and respected the personal, cultural, social, and religious needs of patients and had a very good understanding of their patient demographics. This key question has been rated as good.

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.

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. 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. The National GP Survey 2024 results found 78% of respondents said the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to was good at treating them with care and concern during their last general practice appointment. This was below the local and national averages of 86% and 85%. The practice’s 2024 internal patient satisfaction survey showed that 86% of patients were satisfied with the doctor/nurse’s concern for them. The service used the findings from surveys, the Holmcroft Working Group, Patient Participation Group (PPG), complaints, and compliments to inform their actions to improve the service.

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 results of the most recent national GP patient survey showed the percentage of respondents who stated that during their last GP appointment they were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment was 86%, compared to the local and national average of 91%.

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. Staff received equality and diversity training as part of their essential training. The practice registration form asked people wishing to register to inform them about their personal, cultural, social, and religious needs and communication and choice requirements. These were electronically coded onto patient records to ensure their needs could be met. Staff told us they discussed with the patients their holistic needs. These included not only medical but also emotional, social, financial concerns and spiritual needs. Staff reported they ensured that care decisions reflected the patient’s values and preferences. Staff, with consent, could signpost patients to other tertiary or health and social care professionals.

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. Staff we spoke with knew the process for referral to emergency support, including mental health crisis teams. The triage document and staff skill mix document were used by staff to make appointments for patients with the most appropriate clinical or non-clinical staff member. Staff reported that the patient choice of clinician was equally considered. Reception held information from the practice responses to feedback entitled ‘You said, we did’. For example, patients wanted changes made to the practice information leaflet and a radio put in the waiting area, which had been actioned.

The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.

Reception staff reported a change over the last few months with the appointment of a manager on site most days in reception and felt better supported. Staff told us there had been improvements made in their workloads with additional staff recruited and when there was a need to support incoming calls these were prioritised, but this had left some administrative backlogs to manage. Staff felt able to raise these issues and found these were now dealt with as a team approach. Staff also rotated between taking calls to ‘front of house’ support and admin functions to reduce the risk of stress. Staff informed us they felt valued by leaders. 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 rest areas. Staff promotions were evident following successful achievements. A ‘Differently Abled Buddy Scheme’ was run to provide support to new and recently recruited staff who identify as having a disability/neuro-divergence. It aimed to help support staff to become established in their new role and guide them in accessing appropriate support. The service held a Diversity and Inclusion statement and had completed an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA). Team meetings were held monthly to update staff and provide the opportunity for staff discussions. The practice staff had access to a wellbeing service.