Call for Concern

If you have serious concerns that your health condition or a relative’s/friend’s health condition is worsening and is not being adequately addressed by their healthcare team, contact our Call for Concern team.

Are you concerned about your own or a loved one’s health condition?

We know that friends and family can often see a patient’s deterioration first. They will know what signs to look out for and can often spot when something is out of the ordinary.

Colleagues here at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) already have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week access to the Critical Care Outreach Team to escalate concerns about a patient’s condition. Call for Concern as part of Martha’s Rule now gives this access to patients and families for the first time – enabling them to escalate care concerns if necessary.

Call for concern banner

Follow these steps to make a Call for Concern:

  • Step 1 – Discuss the concerns with the ward nurse or doctor.
  • Step 2 – If you feel the concerns are not being appropriately responded to, discuss them with the nurse in charge of the shift.
  • Step 3 – Telephone Call for Concern with your serious concerns about a health condition that is getting worse and is still not being adequately addressed.
Information:

Call or text 07484 079775 to raise a ‘Call for Concern’. There is the option to leave a voicemail message.

Our critical care outreach practitioners will review the patient, liaise with the clinical team, and take any appropriate immediate action.

You can call if you notice a serious change or deterioration in your/their health condition and feel healthcare staff are not addressing the concerns.

Patients, relatives, carers and advocates in adult inpatient areas.

The Call for Concern programme is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and has previously been successfully implemented by several other NHS organisations.

Call for Concern is a patient safety initiative. Please do not call us to report problems with hospital beds, rooms, food, parking, or any other general issues. If you have these problems, please speak to the ward nurse or manager, or contact our patient experience team on 01279 827211 or email [email protected].

The Call for Concern team will take your call and assess how best to help you or your loved one. They will decide on the best course of action to try to resolve your concerns. This may involve:

  • asking your or your loved one’s healthcare team to visit you on the ward to perform an assessment
  • sending members of the Critical Care Outreach Team (experienced clinical practitioners specialising in reviewing and assessing unwell adult patients) to assess your or your loved one’s current state of health.

Someone from the team will follow up with you and check that you are happy with the course of action taken and that your concerns have been adequately addressed.

At the moment, our Call for Concern service is only available in adult inpatient areas.

Please do not feel concerned that using this system will negatively affect your/the patient’s care in any way. We recognise that sometimes the patient or a close loved one can see that something is wrong. No one knows your health care needs better than you and your family.

You can find out more about Martha’s Rule here.

When you contact Call for Concern, they will need to know:

  • The patient’s name and ideally their date of birth
  • The ward they are on
  • A brief description of the problem, and what has already been done about it
  • Your contact details and relationship to the patient

Call 4 Concern and C4C are copyright Royal Berkshire NHS FT 2010.