Patient Advice Liaison Service

The Patient Services Department deal with all Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) enquiries and can help in a number of ways. For example:

• Helping to answer questions about your treatment
• Providing information and putting you in touch with other health care providers and organisations
• Receiving comments and suggestions about your experience of using our services and feeding them back so that services can be improved
• Providing access to bilingual health advocates and other support services you or your family might need in order to use PALS, eg interpreters or signers
• Supplying information on patients' rights
• Passing on your thanks to ambulance staff if you would like to praise them for your treatment
• Advising on how to access the complaints service, if you are unhappy about any aspect of your care or treatment
• Arranging referral to independent complaints advocacy services that can help to submit formal complaints.

The PALS Promise

If you contact PALS for assistance or advice, a member of the Patient Services Department will:         

• Contact you in person within 24 hours*
• Arrange a meeting with an operational manager at a time and place convenient to you
• Help you to find the best way of resolving your problem or answering your question
• Deal with your enquiries in confidence and only pass on information to other care agencies with your consent
• Not access your medical records without your permission
• Keep you updated on the progress of enquiries and any action we propose to take
• Use information from patients anonymously to improve services
• Ask you for feedback on PALS in order to develop the service
• Use your feedback as a learning opportunity to improve our services.

* Monday to Friday, during office hours.