PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service)
The NHS employs over a million staff in thousands of locations. It is alarge and complex organisation providing a broad range of services. Itis not surprising that sometimes you or a loved one may feel bewilderedor concerned when using the NHS. And this can be at times when you arefeeling at your most vulnerable and anxious.
So, what shouldyou do if you want on the spot help when using the health service? TheNHS expects all members of staff to listen and respond to you to thebest of their ability. But sometimes, you may wish to talk to someoneemployed especially to help you. The Patient Advice and LiaisonService, known as PALS, has been introduced to ensure that the NHSlistens to patients, their relatives, carers and friends, and answerstheir questions and resolves their concerns as quickly as possible.
PALSalso helps the NHS to improve services by listening to what matters topatients and their loved ones and making changes, when appropriate.
What does PALS do? In particular, PALS will:
- Provide you with information about the NHS and help you with any other health-related enquiry
- Help resolve concerns or problems when you are using the NHS
- Provideinformation about the NHS complaints procedure and how to getindependent help if you decide you may want to make a complaint
- Provide you with information and help introduce you to agencies and support groups outside the NHS
- Inform you about how you can get more involved in your own healthcare and the NHS locally
- Improvethe NHS by listening to your concerns, suggestions and experiences andensuring that people who design and manage services are aware of theissues you raise
- Provide an early warning system for NHSTrusts and monitoring bodies by identifying problems or gaps inservices and reporting them.
Find out more
Ifyou would like more information about PALS, the functions it isintended to provide and the standards it should strive to achieve , follow this link.