Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)

Contact details

The PALS team can be reached by email or phone. You can also complete a contact form.

Useful resources

• We’re here to help: PALS easy read leaflet
• NHS England – giving feedback or making a complaint about your healthcare easy read leaflet
• Supporting our Patients and their Family and Friend Carers leaflet

You have the right to get a copy of your health care record or medical record. This is called a Subject Access Request.

If you have had a good experience while a patient at our hospital then we would love to hear from you. Your feedback is very valuable information and we are grateful for you taking the time.

Positive feedback is welcomed and helps us to understand what is important for you as a patient, carer, relative or as a visitor.

Please visit our ‘patient feedback and involvement’ page for further details.

If you have a concern about your care, the care of a relative or about any aspect of our services, in the first instance you should discuss your concerns with the Nurse or Doctor looking after you or your relative, or, Ward Sister or Matron.

If you would like to speak to a member of the doctors team including the consultant, you can ask a member of the nursing staff or reception staff to arrange an appointment for you. Some wards have relative’s clinics to facilitate communication with the doctors caring for you or your relative.

Formal complaints

If you are still not satisfied and the problem still remains unresolved you can make a formal complaint.

If you wish to make a formal complaint you can do so by writing to the chief executive by completing this complaint form and emailing to: [email protected].

Please be assured your care and treatment provided by the Trust will not be affected as a result of making a complaint.

A complaint may be made by a patient or a person acting on behalf of a patient who has received treatment at the Trust. Where the complainant is acting on behalf of the patient, verbal or written consent must be obtained from the patient before investigations are undertaken and a response made.

The complaints team will contact the complainant with the relevant consent documentation.  Please follow this link for the consent form.  Where the patient is a child (under the age of 16), a complaint may be made by the parent or legal guardian. Where the patient does not have capacity, the complaint may be made on their behalf by their nominated next of kin. Where the patient has died, the complaint may be made by any person demonstrating that they are acting on behalf of the deceased.

If a patient is still not happy with the response provided by the Trust, they can ask the independent Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to look at your complaint.

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP

Phone: 0345 015 4033.

Timeframes

The timescale within which a complaint must be made is twelve months from the date on which a matter occurred, or when the matter came to the notice of the complainant. 

However, there is discretion to investigate outside of this timeframe, particularly if there are good reasons for a complaint not having been received within the twelve months and if it is possible to investigate the case effectively.  Furthermore, where complaints received are particularly long and complex, complainants will be asked to be explicit about the issues about which they are requiring resolution to allow for an appropriate investigation to be undertaken that is proportionate to the case.  Where it is decided not to investigate, the complainant will have the opportunity to approach the relevant Ombudsman.

Financial compensation

Complaints requesting financial compensation should be managed in accordance with the NHS Complaints procedure and with reference to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and NHS Finance Manual (chapter 5 – Losses and Special Payments). 

The UHSussex complaints team will signpost patients to AVMA if patients wish to seek compensation.  AVMA is an independent service providing helpline advisers to offer practical advice about what options are available.   

Their website www.avma.org.uk offers a variety of self-help guides and their helpline is 0345 123 2352 open Monday to Friday 10am to 3.30pm.

We will provide a written response within 60 days.

PALS don’t investigate but focus on resolving issues, as well as dealing with questions, suggestions and concerns.

A formal complaint will be investigated following the NHS Complaints procedure. You will receive a full response to your complaint that should address all the points that you have raised.

You can make a complaint via our complaints form. Please see ‘How to make a complaint’ above.

The care you receive will not be adversely affected by speaking to PALS or raising a formal complaint.

When your complaint is received by the Trust, it will be passed to the Complaints Team who is responsible for reviewing all complaints and sending them to the relevant teams for their responses. An acknowledgement letter will then be prepared for you.

The Complaints Team will then review each case individually to assess whether or not it needs to be discussed at the Trust’s executive safety meeting, if serious concerns relating to patient safety have been identified.

All responses are reviewed by the Executive Team.

If you need independent help to make a complaint, you can contact the Independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service (IHCAS) in your area.

IHCAS can help by supporting you through the process and representing your wishes and feelings. They will help you explore the options for taking your complaint forward. IHCAS can also provide help with interpreters if there are language difficulties.

You can contact your local IHCAS – see below:

• Brighton and Hove – POhWER: 0300 456 2370 or email: [email protected]
• West Sussex IHCAS: 0300 012 0122 or email: [email protected]
• East Sussex – The Advocacy People – 0330 440 9000 Email: [email protected]

The Trust aims to respond to all formal complaints within 60 working days of receipt. Sometimes investigations can take longer than this, in which case you will be sent a holding letter informing you of this.

Waiting times for appointments

We are experiencing a significant backlog in appointments for some of our services following our response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Please be assured that we are doing everything in our power to work through our lists to give you the help that you need. We are making good progress and have significantly reduced the number of patients classed as long waiters.

Finding out about your appointment

Unless there has been a change in your symptoms, please do not contact your GP for an update on waiting times, or to ask them to speed up the process.

If you have any concerns or questions please use the contact details on your hospital letter, or if you do not have a letter with these contact details, our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) can answer your queries. However, please note that the team cannot access this information about appointment waiting times directly, limiting the speed of their response.

We are working as hard as we can to serve our community and will be in touch with you as soon as we can.

Thank you for your understanding.

Unfortunately not, you will need to contact the Practice Manager at your Surgery.

Yes. However, if you are expecting to receive a response we will be unable to do this without your contact details. Please be aware that all of our enquiries and complaints are treated confidentially.

This is possible. You may wish to discuss this with or write to your current consultant. Alternatively, your GP may assist with the request if you talk to him or her. For further information or assistance please contact our PALS team.