Patients and visitors

We want you to have an outstanding experience every time you come to our hospital, however we acknowledge that we don't always get things right. That's why our patient experience team is here to help.

We work with you to find positive ways to solve your problems. When possible, we will try to resolve the problem on the spot with the help and support of teams across the trust.

Our patient advice and liaison service (PALS) team are your first point of contact if you have any feedback, queries or concerns about services provided by the hospital.

What do we do?

• We provide a friendly, easy to access and confidential service to help patients, families and carers
• We give you on-the-spot advice and information if you have queries or difficulties
• We will listen to your concerns and help you find ways to resolve them.
• We report your feedback and concerns to the board of directors to help us improve our services
• We act as a point of contact for anyone wishing to get advice and information about the services we provide

Sometimes, problems cannot be solved straight away but we will try our best to help you to resolve your issue or refer you to the appropriate person.

Our people are the most important resource we have to help us deliver care which is centred around you, your family and carers. So, while we want to know when things are not working, we also want to hear from you when someone goes the extra mile to provide outstanding care.

Please call our patient experience team on 01279 827211 or email paht.compliments@nhs.net.

 

 

 

For inpatients: If you have a concern you would like to raise, please speak to a member of the ward team or ask to speak directly to the ward manager. In the absence of the ward manager, please speak to the deputy ward manager or the nurse in charge. If you do not feel your concern can be resolved locally, then please call our Patient Experience Team on 01279 827211 or email: paht.pals@nhs.net.

PALS are present at the main entrance Monday to Friday 10am – 12pm.

From 2pm to 4pm they can be found in the PALS office (B21).

Outside these hours, PALS do have an enquiry form at these two locations, with a post box located at main entrance, for completed forms.

Alternatively, PALS have a 24 hour messaging service, contact number: 01279 827211. Please leave a brief description of your concern, together with the patient’s full name, date of birth and hospital number (if known). PALS aim to return all call within 24 hours.

If your concern cannot be resolved to your satisfaction, or you want an official investigation to be carried out and to receive a formal reply from the trust, you will need to go through the formal complaints process. In those circumstances:

• We will explain everything you need to know about the complaints process
• We can help you plan your next steps in getting your complaint resolved 
• We will talk to senior staff or managers on your behalf and arrange a meeting for you
• We can refer you to external organisations including the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) or the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)

Care Opinion is an independent feedback platform for health services that provides us with a different way to seek feedback from patients, visitors, relatives and carers.

People can see what others are saying about particular health services, share their own experiences and see how health services have responded to comments from others.

All published opinions go to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which is the national regulator for the NHS in England. All postings are also published on the NHS website.

To find out more about Care Opinion and the benefits it has for our patients and people, please watch the video below:

We encourage you to share your experience at our hospitals using Care Opinion and help us to understand what we are doing well and how we can improve the services that we provide. 

Scroll down to begin completing the online form, or visit our  Care Opinion services page here >