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 that they have about their care and our service.
- PALS will help and advise on any issue related to you or your child's hospital experience. 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 will liaise with the various departments in our hospitals on your behalf to resolve your problems and where appropriate refer you to outside help.
PALS will attempt to resolve your problems 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.
Our PALS service will:
- 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.
Please note, our PALS team 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.
We welcome any suggestions that you feel would help to improve the PALS service.
Contact PALS via our online form
We also have our British Sign Language Accessibility video to watch below:
How to contact us
Opening hours are Monday – Friday 8.30am – 4.30pm
Telephone: 0121 333 8403
Email: bwc.pals@nhs.net
- A 24-hour answerphone service is available.
- The team will return your call the next working day.
- PALS appointments to meet with you in person can be arranged. Please contact PALS to request this.
- Interpreters are available to help and support you, on request.
Useful links:
BWCH Website: https://bwc.nhs.uk/
UHB PALS (Queen Elizabeth, Heartlands, Good Hope, Breast Clinic): https://www.uhb.nhs.uk/pals-contact.htm
Fertility Enquiries: https://bwc.nhs.uk/fertility-faqs
NHS England Complaints (GP concerns etc.): england.contactus@nhs.net
Healthwatch: https://www.healthwatch.co.uk/
Pohwer: https://www.pohwer.net/
PALS FAQ
Before you contact us, please see the below information that may be helpful in answering 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.
If you are contacting PALS because the date of your next appointment is too far away, please be advised PALS do not bring forward appointment dates. We encourage you to speak with your GP directly if your child’s condition has changed. They may be able to send updated information about your child to your child’s Dr at the hospital.
Please see our Trust’s contact page for helpful numbers.
Please note, Forward Thinking Birmingham (FTB) are currently managing disruption caused by an issue with a national provider of NHS information systems. There is no evidence that any patient information has been compromised, but as a precaution the provider has instigated emergency measures. If you need urgent mental health assistance for your child, please contact our Crisis team on 0300 300 0099
PALS cannot bring forward any appointment or surgery for you.
Concerns about Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope & Solihull Hospital are for University Hospitals Birmingham, and you can contact their PALS team here: 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.
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.
Forward Thinking Birmingham
Referral update
Phone support
The Crisis Café is run by MIND and is currently available through the Birmingham and Solihull 24/7 helpline: 0800 915 9292
Over 25s
If you are over 25, you can seek assistance for concerns and enquiries with Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health FT at: bsmhft.customerrelations@nhs.net