Make a complaint

If you're unhappy about your care or treatment, please tell us.

Please be assured that if you raise a concern, or make a complaint, we'll look into this, but it will not have a negative effect on the care that you or a loved one receive.

If you need to tell us about a concern or make a complaint, there are a number of ways that you can do this.

Talking it through

If you're concerned about your care, or any of the services, please speak to a member of staff on the ward or in the department if you feel able to. This is often the best way to get things resolved quickly. If you don't want to talk to the person involved, please ask to speak to the nurse in charge or their manager.

If you're still unhappy, you can ask to speak to the matron.

If you're an outpatient, please ask at reception and they'll put you in touch with the right person.

Alternatively you can contact our patient advice and liaison service (PALS).

Making a complaint

To make a complaint you can:

• call us
• email us
• write to us

You can also use our online form.

Writing a complaint

Ideally, all complaints should be made as soon as possible after the events that you want to complain about took place. This makes it easier for everyone to remember what happened. Complaints should be made within a year of the date of the event.

If you're raising more than 1 concern, make the points that you would like answered clear. This will help us to cover all your concerns.

You can ask a friend or relative to raise a concern or complaint on your behalf. If you do, we'll ask you to sign a consent form, giving us permission to disclose your personal information to this person.

If you want to make a complaint, but are finding this difficult, please contact the complaints team and we'll tell you about the support available, or offer advice to make sure your concerns are heard. 

What you can expect

We'll acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and investigate the issues you've raised.

We may contact you by phone or email to make sure we fully understand your concerns.

When we begin our investigation we'll let you know how long it is likely to take. We'll also keep you informed of progress. If the investigation is going to take longer than first thought we'll let you know.

Once the investigation is complete, you'll receive a written response explaining the outcome of our investigation. If we have identified areas where our services fell below the expected standard we'll tell you what actions we intend to take to improve things.

If you're still unhappy

If, after you have received our written response, you're still unhappy you can request an independent review of your complaint.

You'll need to write to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), requesting a review. You should usually take your complaint to the Ombudsman within a year of when you first became aware of the problem.

Learning from complaints

As a Trust we're committed to learning from all feedback, including complaints, using this to improve services.

In response to feedback/complaints, we have:

• improved how we respond to patients requesting a copy of their medical records
• improved the handover system and staff communication on the postnatal ward
• provided training to make sure staff better understand how to support transgender people 

Support for patients

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has produced:

• British Sign Language videos featuring tips on making a complaint to the NHS
• information about how to complain for people who have a learning disability or want Easy Read information