Help and advice (PALS)

Our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) team are here to help when you need advice, have concerns or don’t know where to turn.

PALS is a confidential advice and support service that can help you sort out any concerns that you may have about any aspect of your or your loved ones care. PALS can:

• Listen to you and talk to staff on your behalf to try to resolve any concerns, issues, problems or difficulties
• Provide information about the service we provide and about the NHS
• Signpost you to other support organisations who can help
• Listen to your suggestions and comments, provide support and take-action to improve our services
• Learn from your positive experience and share compliments with those involved
• Help sort out problems quickly on your behalf.

There is no special form you need to complete to make a complaint, just get in touch with us and we will try to resolve it. You can make a complaint by sending an email to complaints@swlstg.nhs.uk  

Writing a letter to:

Vanessa Ford, Chief Executive 
South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust 
Trinity Building, Springfield University Hospital 
15 Springfield Drive 
London  SW17 0YF
Or

Theresa Pardey 
Head of Quality and Governance
South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust 
Trinity Building, Springfield University Hospital
15 Springfield Drive 
London  SW17 0YF

If you have a concern or comment the first step is to contact the person you know from the service you are using and tell them what the problem is. They can usually address any concerns you have quickly.

You can also ask a member of staff to get in touch with PALS on your behalf. Or you can approach us directly.

We can provide information and work with you to solve any problems you're having accessing or using our services.

We will listen and work with you to find the best solution to your problem. If we can't answer your questions or resolve your concern we will know someone who can.

We act independently when handling patient and family concerns, liaising with staff, managers and, where appropriate, relevant organisations, to get solutions as quickly as possible.

It's vital we're made aware of when things have gone well, so we can promote examples of good practice and share them with other teams and services. In any service, there is always scope for improvements.

We welcome any comments, suggestions or compliments you may have to help us improve our services and keep doing the things that we're doing well. Please email complimentsandpositivefeedback@swlstg.nhs.uk

We will:

• Carefully listen, or read, to what you have to say and try to clarify the outcomes you are looking for 
• Formally acknowledge your complaint within three working days
• Ask for your consent before responding, if a complaint is made on your behalf (i.e. by a carer, friend, relative or advocate)
• Not allow the complaint to affect the quality of your care
• Appoint an investigator, who is not linked to the service you are complaining about, to consider your complaint carefully, investigate thoroughly and fairly and try to resolve it
• Review whether we could have done something better and how we can learn from your complaint to improve the service
• Formally respond in writing within 25 working days and explain how we investigated it and what the outcomes of the investigation are.

If you are unhappy with how the Mental Health Act has been used, you can make a complaint to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) who will investigate.

Find information about making a complaint to the CQC here: Complain about the use of the Mental Health Act - Care Quality Commission (cqc.org.uk)