Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS): Incorporating Complaints, Concerns and Compliments

The Isle of Wight NHS Trust is committed to providing you with the highest quality service possible; we want you to be satisfied with your care, the environment and our attitude.

The Trust welcomes comments and suggestions from everyone: patients, visitors, carers or relatives. Such feedback allows us to learn from your experience so we can improve the services we offer.

Making a complaint or raising a concern will not adversely affect your care and treatment; and no information will be held within your clinical records.

The PALS Office can be found beside the Main Hospital entrance reception and the Patient Experience Team are there to offer information and advice to help address any concerns you may have.

The Patient Experience Team contact details are:

Telephone Number: 01983 534850 or via the Hospital Switchboard: 01983 822099.

Email: iownt.PALS@nhs.net

Office Hours: 09:30 - 16:00 Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays)

Throughout the hospital you will find PALS leaflets that provide information on how to give us general feedback about your experience of the Trust, whether positive or negative.

How can we help:

If you have a concern, we would appreciate you raising it with us at the earliest opportunity. This gives us the chance to address any issues you may have promptly. 

In the first instance, if you have any concerns or questions, please ask to speak to a member of front-line staff such as the nurse looking after the patient or the ward manager. If your concern is about medical treatment, you could ask a nurse to arrange for you to speak to a member of the doctor's team. Concerns about appointments can be raised with the clinic receptionist. If they cannot help, they will know who to refer you to.

If this does not resolve your issue you can contact the PALS service who will discuss your concerns. This may mean referring you to a relevant member of staff who can help you. PALS will offer impartial advice and information and, if appropriate, advise you how to make a formal complaint. 

Making a formal complaint:

If you wish to make a formal complaint you can email or write to the Chief Executive of the Trust, alternatively you can complete the online complaint form which can be found here. Ideally this should be within six months, but no more than a year after the event or issue arose.

If you wish to write directly to the Chief Executive the address is:

Chief Executive

Isle of Wight NHS Trust

St Mary's Hospital

Parkhurst Road

Newport

Isle of Wight

PO30 5TG

Email via: iownt.PatientExperience@nhs.net

Within three working days you will receive an acknowledgement of your complaint and wherever possible you will be invited to discuss your concerns by telephone with them. Where possible an early resolution will be encouraged, however if a full investigation is needed it may take longer, for example if the issues raised are complex or we need to speak to specific staff members. We will of course agree timescales with you and keep you informed of any delays.

You may wish to contact an independent advocate to assist you in making your complaint; more detail on how this is done can be found in their leaflet below. Depending on where you live you can contact them directly by:

Telephone: 03333 447928

Email: IoW@swanadvocacy.org.uk/iow

If your complaint includes other agencies, such as social services or primary care trusts (your GP), the complaint letter will be sent to these agencies with your consent and a combined response given.

If you are not satisfied with our response we would like you to give us the chance to discuss any issues that remain. Firstly we ask you write to the Chief Executive explaining why you remain dissatisfied. We will re-investigate any outstanding issues and respond to you as soon as possible.

You will be offered a meeting to resolve your concerns locally. The Advocacy People, local independent health advocacy service can accompany you to this meeting should you wish.

If you are still dissatisfied you can refer your complaint to the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman at the address below:

Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman

Millbank Tower

Millbank

London

SW1P 4QP

 

Complaints helpline: 0345 015 4033

Email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk

Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk

For Primary Care complaints (ie GP, NHS Dentistry, optometry and pharmaceutical) please contact the National Customer Contact Centre on the below details:

NHS Commisioning Board

PO Box 16738

Redditch

B97 9PT

 

Telephone number: 0300 311 22 33

Email: England.contactus@nhs.net.

 

To view our Complaints Reports please click here

Making a complaint if you are deaf or hard of hearing:

You may also find the below leaflets of use:

Making a Complaint

SWAN (South West Advocacy Network)