Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)

The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is here to help if you have a question about, or on behalf of, a patient’s care. The team can help with a wide range of issues or direct you to another service if that's more appropriate.

Do you have a question about your appointment or care?

• The quickest and easiest way to resolve it is to speak to a member of staff in the service.
• If you are staying in hospital, ask to speak to your matron or ward sister/charge nurse.
• Please contact your service in the first instance but if you are unable to get in touch with the service and need help, please contact PALS.

Aims of the PALS team:

• Listen to patients' concerns, queries, and suggestions
• Advise and support patients, their families, and their carers
• Help resolve problems quickly on your behalf by liaising with the relevant teams
• Pass on your comments and suggestions on improving our hospital services to the relevant management.
• If we are unable to resolve your concerns we can provide you with information about the Trusts formal complaints process and should you require assistance in making a complaint, we can provided you information on the independent complaints advocacy service

What PALS cannot do:

• Book or change appointments
• Offer a counselling service
• Give you detailed medical information or a medical diagnosis
• Change or affect a medical decision that has been made
• Provide copies of medical records
• Deal with requests for work experience or volunteer opportunities, references, invoices, job applications and promotional and advertising materials. These requests will not receive a response

If you have concerns or questions about another healthcare provider or your GP please see our helpful contacts list.

If you have any questions about accessing medical records, appointments, finding out if a patient is admitted, HR issues or work experience please see our helpful contact list.

How to Contact the PALS Team

By phone: 0114 271 2400 between 10am and 1pm weekdays (excluding Bank Holidays).

Our phone lines can sometimes be busy and we thank you for your patience whilst waiting. If you are able to wait you can call us back at another time or, if you prefer, you can contact the team by email and request that we contact you on a specified telephone number.

By email: sth.pals@nhs.net

By writing: PALS Office, B Floor, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Glossop Road, Sheffield S10 2JF

In person: You can arrange an appointment or drop into the department at any time between office opening hours. To arrange an appointment, please telephone or email the team.

• The Royal Hallamshire Hospital, B Floor, Glossop Road, Sheffield S10 2JF, or
• The Northern General Hospital, Huntsman Reception, C Floor, Barnsley Road, Sheffield S5 7AT

Please note, if you do not make an appointment and a PALS Officer is not available when you arrive, you will be required to arrange an appointment either later the same day or an alternative day that suits your availability.

When contacting the PALS Team please include the following details:

• The Patient’s name and address
• The Patient’s date of birth and hospital number, if known
• The ward the patient is on if they are still in hospital
• The Complainant’s and/or the Patient's phone number
• The Complainant’s name and relationship to the Patient

Please note if you are contacting PALS on behalf of someone else, we will need consent from that person to investigate your enquiry.

Resolving Concerns

If you have any concerns that need to be resolved quickly, the PALS Team can help with that by putting you in touch with the service where your concern is. This may be a Service Manager, a Matron/Ward Manager or another member of staff who may be able to help you. The PALS Team will ask them to look into your concerns and ask them to contact you directly to discuss the issues. We aim to do resolve concerns within a few days.

If you would prefer, or we cannot resolve your concerns you do have the right to make a formal complaint.

Giving Feedback

You can also give us feedback by completing one of our patient experience surveys: Click here