The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) at UCLH was one of the first to be established. Now every Trust in the country has a service like this.
- We are a patient-friendly, easy to access, confidential service designed to provide a personal contact to assist patients, relatives and carers.
- We can offer on the spot advice and information if you have queries or difficulties
- We will listen to your concerns and help you find ways of resolving them
- We will take note of what you tell us to help to improve the service our hospitals offer to patients
- We act as a point of contact for all those wishing to get advice and information about our services.
The service has been set up to help patients, and their relatives and carers, find a speedy and effective solution to any problems they may encounter. We can also provide up to date information about the services available throughout the Trust.
If you contact PALS for assistance or advice, we will:
- Contact you in person within 24 hours of your request or by the next working day
- Advise you of the options available to you and help you to find the best way of resolving your problem
- Deal with your problems in confidence and only pass on information to other people or departments with your permission
- Keep you advised at all times of the progress of any action you ask us to take on your behalf
- Use anonymised information from our contact with you to improve hospital services for the future
- Only access your medical records or obtain information about you with your agreement
- Ask you if you are happy with the help we gave and ask you for suggestions for making the service better
- Ensure that no person who contacts the Service receives less favourable treatment from PALS on the grounds of their sex, marital status, race, colour, creed, religion, physical disability, mental health, learning difficulty, age or sexual orientation
- If you are a relative/carer/friend of a patient we will obtain where possible the written or verbal permission of the patient before we can assist with the problem
If you have a problem which has not been sorted out on the ward or in a department, we will try to help you to resolve it or refer you to the appropriate person. (If 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 NHS formal complaints procedure.
- We can talk to senior staff and/or managers on your behalf
- We can refer you to outside organisations should you need them
- We can explain the complaints process and refer you to the complaints department when necessary
- We can give you information about the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service