Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)

Our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is a free and confidential service which helps patients, parents and carers with any information, concerns, or problems they have about their care and our service.

PALS will attempt to resolve your problem as quickly as possible. However, if you feel the need to put in a formal complaint about any aspect of your NHS experience, we will be happy to advise and guide you through the complaints procedure.

We recognise that being in hospital can cause lots of difficulties and we are happy to listen and offer our support. If you are currently in hospital, we recommend you speak with the Ward Manager or the Nurse in Charge, who may be able to assist you with any ward issues, in the first instance.

PALS are here to:

  • Advise you on the options available and help you to resolve your problem
  • Liaise with you, and the service involved, to ensure a timely resolution
  • Use your experiences to help improve services in the future.

PALS are unable to:

  • Bring forward an appointment/procedure date for you. All patients are reviewed by a medical staff member to ensure they are triaged appropriately. PALS are unable to speed up appointments.
  • Provide you with feedback if we do not have consent. Consent from the patient is extremely important and if it is not provided, PALS will not be able to provide feedback to you. Consent is needed if the patient is over 16 years old, and you are liaising with PALS on their behalf.

Contact PALS

Opening hours: Monday — Friday, 8:30am — 4:30pm

Contact Form for PALS

Email: bwc.pals@nhs.net

Telephone: 0121 333 8403

  • A 24-hour answerphone service is available.
  • The team will return your call within two working days.
  • Interpreters are available to help and support you, on request.

We also have our British Sign Language Accessibility video to watch below:

PALS FAQs

Before you contact us, please see the information below that may help answer an enquiry or concern.

We are a liaison service, not a clinical team, and we do not provide clinical responses.  

You may find it useful to review our Support and Advice page or see our Trust’s contact page for helpful numbers.

Complaining about GP

Unfortunately, PALS cannot support GP or Primary Care complaints, please contact NHS England england.contactus@nhs.net

Need to cancel/reschedule an appointment

Have you contacted the medical secretary? You can call our switchboard team on 0121 333 9999 and request to speak to your consultant’s medical secretary. If you cannot get through to them, or their voicemail service is not currently active, please ask to be put through to the Team Leader of the service.

Received a cancellation letter

If your appointment has been cancelled by us, please be assured you will be sent a new date in due course.

GP referral enquiry

If you have not received an update following your GP referral, please contact: 0121 333 9375

Clinical enquiry

If you have an enquiry about your child’s care, you will need to speak with the medical secretary for the clinical team. You can do this by requesting to be put through by our switchboard team, calling 0121 333 9999 and asking for the team’s medical secretary. This is the fastest way to receive a response from the consultant/clinical team.

Transferring care to another consultant

This can be requested, however, please bear in mind that if you have previously transferred care, it is inline with our guidelines that this cannot be requested again.

Transferring care to another Trust

Your GP can refer you to another hospital, however, please be aware you will still be looking at a waiting list whichever Trust you choose to be seen by.

Child’s symptoms have worsened

You need to speak with your GP in the first instance, if your child’s symptoms have worsened, the GP can update our clinicians here on your current situation.

Reimbursements

If you are on site attending an appointment and are seeking a reimbursement for travel/other, please attend our Cashiers office (open Monday – Friday 9.00am – 4.30pm. Closed from 1.00pm-2.00pm). PALS do not provide reimbursements or monetary support directly.

Useful Links

Contacting University Hospitals Birmingham

Concerns about Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope & Solihull Hospital are for University Hospitals Birmingham, and you can contact their PALS team via: pals@uhb.nhs.uk.

This includes the Breast Unit at Birmingham Women’s Hospital, which operates at the Women’s site, but is run by University Hospitals Birmingham.

Fertility Enquiries

For answers to the most commonly asked questions about fertility, visit Fertility FAQs

NHS England Complaints (GP concerns, etc.): 

Contact via: england.contactus@nhs.net 

Healthwatch

Healthwatch is your health and social care champion. As an independent statutory body, Healthwatch has the power to make sure NHS leaders and other decision-makers listen to your feedback and improve standards of care. 

Pohwer

Pohwer provides advocacy for deprivation of liberty (DOLs) safeguards and provides independent mental capacity advocacy. They also provide some community advocacy in Birmingham.