Patient advice and liaison service (PALS)

What does PALS do?

Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) is a free, confidential and impartial service that is independent to the wards or clinical team.  If you have a concern, you may, as a first port of call choose to contact the Patient Advice Liaison Service (PALS) to help sort out any problems quickly and easily. 

PALS aims to:

• Improve the service user and patient experience
• Advise and support service users, patients, their families and carers
• Provide information on the NHS services
• Listen to and respond to your concerns, suggestions or queries
• Influence changes in the service

Services offered by PALS include:

• Ward and telephone consultation to address any queries
• Trouble shooting to provide early resolutions to potential problems and concerns
• Supporting service user and patients rights
• Providing information and support to access other information including NHS Complaints Procedure
• Providing information and signposting to independent, specialist advocacy services and support groups
• Providing information about any aspect of Trust Services
• Liaison between professionals for service users and patients
• Support service user, patient and public involvement in care
• Raising staff awareness of public concerns and issues

Whilst we hope that your concerns or problems can be resolved, the use of PALS does not remove your right to make a complaint at any stage, neither does it replace the existing complaints system.  All complaints will continue to be made through the Trust's Complaints Procedure.

PALS will not:

• Investigate complaints
• Deal with a problem that is currently being investigated under the NHS Complaints Procedure
• Pursue a concern that has already exhausted the NHS Complaints Procedure

PALS may be contacted by post, telephone or email.

You can write to us:

Customer Services/PALS Co-ordinator
Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust
11 Shelley Road
Bournemouth
BH1 4JQ

Or telephone our direct line:

0800 587 4997

(When the office is unattended a confidential answerphone service is provided)

There are local PALS representatives at all our sites and for all our community teams / clinics. You can ask to speak to the local PALS representative. If they are not available or you wish to speak to someone who does not work as part of the hospital / team you can ask a member of staff to contact the PALS Coordinator for you.

You can email us at: pals@dhuft.nhs.uk

Our leaflet can be viewed by clicking the link on the right hand side under 'Related Files'.