A Guide for Patients, Carers and Relatives and Visitors to the Trust

Transcription

1 East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust A Guide for Patients, Carers and Relatives and Visitors to the Trust Tell us what you think about our services Safe Personal Effective

2 Listening, Acting, Improving We value your comments and compliments about the services we provide. Learning from your experience will help improve services for you and other people. While you are receiving treatment and care through the services we provide, the staff will make every effort to provide you with an informative, caring and satisfactory service whilst respecting you as an individual. Being Open We promote a culture of being open to provide support to patients, carers, healthcare professionals and managers when things go wrong. If things do go wrong you will be involved with and informed of how your concerns are to be handled. Raising Your Concerns If you, your relatives or carers are worried about any aspect of your treatment or care, ask to speak with the medical and nursing staff involved with your care as soon as your concerns arise. If you wish to discuss your concerns further, please contact the Ward Manager or Matron (available on the Ward). We would recommend that you try to speak to the staff initially, as this is the most effective way of having your concerns addressed. They will listen to you and make sure the concerns are looked into and attempts made to resolve them. 2 Safe Personal Effective

3 Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) The PALS team works to improve the service to NHS patients, their relatives and carers. Support if Required There are a number of advocacy agencies that can provide confidential help and support to assist you with your complaint; a local representative can also accompany you to meetings. If you feel you need assistance these agencies can be contacted on: Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) Telephone: info@carersfederation.co.uk N-Compass Advocacy Service Tel: advocacy@ncompassnorthwest.co.uk We can: Listen to your concerns, comments or compliments and pass them on to managers and staff Help sort out your problems quickly on your behalf or put you in touch with the relevant staff/department Advise and support you and your relatives and carers Provide you with information on NHS services Advise you about the Complaints Procedure, and the support available if you decide to complain. Making a Formal Complaint If you feel your concerns have not been addressed adequately or you wish to proceed with involving the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) or making a complaint. The rest of this leaflet explains the process. You may wish to formally lodge a complaint but are unable to do so, this can be done by a relative, carer or friend who can act on your behalf. We will request your consent to disclose information to someone representing you. 3

4 Our Standards Your complaint will be acknowledged within two working days of receipt by the Complaints Team. We will contact you to discuss your concerns in more detail. We will also advise you of the length of time to investigate our complaint. If your complaint is complex, we may require additional time to carry out the investigation and we will contact you to advise you of this. We will ensure you are kept up to date. We will provide you with a full explanation regarding your complaint on completion. If any further delays occur we will keep you informed of progress. There are some things which we cannot deal with under the NHS Complaints Procedure. These include: Complaints about private treatment Complaints about Local Authority Social Services Events requiring investigation by a professional disciplinary body Events about which you are taking legal action Complaints about Primary Care Services (e.g. your General Practitioner, Dentist etc) Other NHS organisations Other NHS providers whose premises are on ELHT sites. However, there are occasions when your complaint may include more than one organisation. In these cases we will always work in partnership to resolve your concerns. What to do Next If your complaint is detailed or complex, please write it down so we can be sure that we understand all of your concerns and send it to the address provided at the end of this leaflet. 4 Safe Personal Effective

5 If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of the Local Resolution You may request to have your complaint considered for an independent review of your concerns. For this, you need to write to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), indicating why you remain dissatisfied, at the address at the end of this leaflet. The role of the PHSO is to provide a service to the public in which they undertake independent investigations into complaints where the NHS appears to have not acted properly or fairly or has provided a poor service. In most cases the PHSO will not investigate a complaint unless it has already been made to the Trust and all options of local resolution have been explored. Patient Advice and Liaison Customer Relations Team Contact Details: PALS: Helpline: pals@elht.nhs.uk Complaints: Telephone: complaints@elht.nhs.uk Or write to: Customer Relations Team Governance Unit Park View Offices Royal Blackburn Hospital Haslingden Road Blackburn BB2 3HH The Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman for England: 13th Floor, Millbank Tower Millbank, London SW1P 4QP Helpline:

6 This document can be produced in large print, in Braille, on audio cassette and in other languages on request 6 Safe Personal Effective

7 Notes 7

8 Comment Sheet Please use the space below to make any comments you wish. You can tell us about a problem you have had or just comment on your care, good or bad. My experience relates to: Hospital or Service: e.g. Royal Blackburn Hospital, Clitheroe Community Hospital, District Nurses Department: e.g. Outpatients, X-ray, Podiatry Comments If you would like an officer to contact you about your comments please complete the boxes below. Name: Address: Telephone: Please return completed form to: Postcode: Customer Relations Team, Governance Dept, Park View Offices, Royal Blackburn Hospital, Haslingden Road, Blackburn BB2 3HH or post it in the comments box on the blue boards in the hospitals. Created by (ref /14), an ISO9001 Quality and ISO14001 Environmental accredited company.