To not think I should have to go back to PALs to chase what they said would happen in their resolution.

[Lem0nCurd]

What is the point of PALs if what they say is going to happen doesn’t?

Its stressful enough doing it in the first place.

And where do we go next?

Hi OP!

I used to work for PALS (still in NHS but different department now). What's the situation regarding? I can try and help a little bit on what PALS should/shouldn't be doing.

I had dealing with PALS many years ago and they were fucking awful. They clearly had a culture of defending the NHS rather than listening to patient complaints, were rude, dismissive, had no compassion and were administratively incompetent.

to answer your question, what is the point of them?, from my experience they exist because the NHS is obliged to fund them, but they exist as part of the NHS and have completely absorbed the horrendous admit-no-blame, defend-the-service, culture that the NHS is shamefully notorious for.

Where to go next? Our NHS board held a public strategy consultation meeting with the high honchos at the table. I went and waited till the questions section at the end m, put my hand up and made my complaint in full there. They were embarrassed into offering me a one to one meeting with the Chief Exec.

Bypass PALS and complain directly. Your trust should have (MUST) a copy of their complaints procedure in their website - complain directly to them.

It’s ludicrous. We were directed to PALs just to find out what’s was happening with my son’s case. 😳I also included several failings. We got a resolution document back. 1 thing another department has sorted ( wasn’t their doing or mistake), the department who made the mistake have been shite and continue to be shite. Re the main and different complaint the PALS officer listed what was going to happen to put it right. It hasn’t and we’re still in the same situation. Rang the manager who said go back to PALs.

What is the point of them if NHS departments just ignore resolutions?

Complain directly to who?

Without knowing more my best guess is that department has no staff to put it right… and/or other patients are in a similar situation so the department has multiple complaints to work through and again no staff to work through them. Lots of children's services are barely staffed and firefighting. Mine has gone from 8 staff to 3 in a 12/18 month period, can’t recruit and I’ll be leaving as soon as I find another job outside the nhs. It’s such a shame for the children who really need the services and I really feel for the parents who just want to get the right things in place for their children.

If it’s about a particular HCP rather than a departmental/waiting list/management issue you can complain directly to their professional body. The department or PALS should tell you who this is.

Of course not, ideally, but isn't a certain amount of chasing for everything just the way of the world now? Extremely tedious, I agree.

I complained directly to the nhs trust. It was about a service (well lack there of). Resulted almost in the death of my child.

So is PALs just for show? If they write a resolution, does it not need to happen?

So PALS is for informal usually quick resolutions. You need to write formally to the complaints team to complaint and get a formal written and investigated, recorded response.

if you can’t find the complaints team email, you can go via pals but make it abundantly clear that you want to put a formal complaint in. They will respond with pretty strict timelines which you can expect them to respond by.

if you are not happy with their response you can reopen and appeal the response by writing back.

they will usually offer you a face to face meeting with the clinical team too.

if the response to that complaint isn’t sufficient you can write to your MP who will get involved.

as a senior manager, if you want questions answering/things investigating, literally email a list of bullet points/questions with as much detail as possible, for example:

• at my sons appt on x date you said I would have an appt by y date. 2 months later I contacted pals as we still had no appointment. It is now y date.
• Please arrange appt at earliest convenience and convey this date by letter.
• please provide explanation as to the multiple delays.

formal complaints are responded to by the relevant dept managers, the complaints team and then they are quality assessed usually by a senior nurse (associate director of nursing in my trust) and then read and signed off by the chief exec or deputy. The complaint will be recorded and the fact there has been a complaint and the theme brought up and discussed at the governance meeting (but not in detail, eg the theme is lack of appointments, as opposed to Mr smith is very unhappy that his cardiology appt hasn’t come through yet).
pals aren’t typically recorded nor seen by anyone senior.

hope that helps

Catsonskis

Thankyou, yes it does help. I still don’t understand though what the pout of PALS is if they write resolutions which are ignored.😳 It should be made clear that resolutions are meaningless. Where does the PALS ombardsman fit in with all this? Had been advised elsewhere to go straight to chief executive.

What @Catsonskis said. Pals staff often have a nightmare getting information or actions from clinical staff; they are fine for a bit of informal feedback but if you want resolution then it has to be a formal complaint. Check the hospital/whoever website for complaints process and do that.

So There’s not a pals ombudsman, just health in general. PALS stands for patient advice liaison service, so typically in my trust I get calls from pals saying “oh we have mr so and so on the line, he’s expected an appointment for his 6m follow up but it’s now 9 months,”
and id look into it as a service manager and call him back and explain what had happened “very sorry mr so and so,
you’re right you should have been seen at 6m but due to xyz I can see that hasn’t happened. I can see that you’re next on the list to be offered an appt and we’re booking appts 6 weeks in the future. I’ll put a reminder in my diary to check you have an appt made, but do contact me if it doesn’t come through”.
or id get “mrs x doesn’t want to see a registrar only a consultant” and I’d try and arrange that.

complaints come through a formal system with questions and a time frame to respond to, these are usually more serious where there’s multiple cancelled appts with seemingly no reason, poor perceived experience in clinic, poor experience on the wards/failures to investigate. A proper investigation is meant to be undertaken including obtaining statements from those involved in the care/situation and put into a formal written response with an action plan that is supposed to be monitored against.

what did pals say would happen that hasn’t? What resolution are you looking for?

re the advice to go to chief exec, that is writing a formal complaint. The chief exec will see the complaint.