Raising your concerns about our services

How we can help with comments, concerns, complaints and compliments 

Contacting the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) and the Complaints Team 

How to make your views known about our services

Compliments and comments

We welcome your feedback to help us make improvements. 

You can do this via the national Friends and Family Test (FFT) following your inpatient stay or outpatient appointment and by completing our patient surveys:  

Or write to the Patient Experience Team using the details below.

Raising Concerns 

We will do everything we can to ensure that you receive the highest standard of care in our hospitals. If you feel that your experience fell below this standard, we want you to tell us so that we can do our best to put things right, and to make improvements for all our patients. 

Telling us what you think will not affect your care in any way. Complaint records are separate from healthcare records. 

Concerns: first steps 

The easiest and quickest way to resolve a problem is to speak with a member of the ward, clinic, or department staff. 

If you are not satisfied, please ask the staff member to contact the matron or head of nursing/midwifery. 

They will do their best to resolve the matter at the time or agree a way forward with you. 

Concerns: next steps  

PALS staff work to support patients and their representatives by providing information about services here at the Trust and other organisations, as well as listening to concerns and liaising with hospital departments on your behalf. We can be contacted by email or by telephone.  

Our telephone lines are open Monday – Friday 10:00 – 15:00 and we aim to respond to messages left by the end of the next working day.

Contact PALS:

Requests for medical records

For patient confidentiality, a request for your medical records must be made formally. Please see our website:

Appointments 

Please note: If you wish to make a change to an appointment, you should contact the Outpatients Booking Line on 0300 1316770 or the number quoted at the top of your appointment letter. 

Making a formal complaint 

Complaints can be made by anyone who has been affected by the services we provide. If you wish to complain on someone else’s behalf, we require their consent, unless they are under 16 years of age or lack capacity to make their own decisions. 

To make a formal complaint: 

Write to:

Or by contacting our PALS teams by telephone 

We aim to:  

Acknowledge your complaint within three working days of receipt.

Contact you to agree how you would like your concerns to be resolved (in writing, via a telephone call or a meeting).

Thoroughly investigate the concerns you have raised and respond to you within an agreed and reasonable timeframe.

Ensure you are kept informed of progress during our investigations.

Please note: We encourage you to make your complaint within 12 months of the event. Investigating complaints beyond this timeframe can be difficult. Investigation of such complaints will be at the discretion of the complaints team.

What if I am still dissatisfied? 

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can:

• Ask us for more clarification or information  
• Ask us to look at your complaint again 
• Request a meeting with relevant staff  

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)  

If you are dissatisfied with our investigation and final response you can ask the PHSO to review your complaint. 

Email: [email protected]  

Write to: Millbank Tower, Millbank, London, SW1P 4QP.