Patient Experience
The Patient Experience Team keep patients and their families at the heart of what we do, making your experience the best it can be.
Within Patient Experience, we have teams who work with staff, patients, partners, families and organisations in the community.
EnjoyArt
There is overwhelming evidence that arts and creative projects can make a positive difference and hugely improve the experience of patients, carers, visitors and staff.
The EnjoyArt programme has been developed to support creative health at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
EnjoyArt has been designed in partnership with patients, families, and staff across all Trust sites, incorporating music, visual art, poetry, dance, drama, crafts, and other art forms across BWC.
Engagement
We have four engagement forums taking place monthly or more. These help to make sure patients, partners and families are at the heart of our decision-making. These groups co-design and co-produce alongside our team and staff across the Trust. We also have two youth engagement co-workers who pay special attention to ensure we are engaging with our young people.
YPAG – Young People’s Advisory Group (11yo to 22yo) email bwc.ypag@nhs.net
T4B – Think 4 Brum Mental Health & Wellbeing (16yo to 25yo)
FPAG – Family and Patient Advisory Group
Maternity Neonatal Voices Partnership – for those who have used our maternity pathway in the last three years, to offer feedback and co-production to improve services.
Health Inequalities
Our patient experience team have been awarded a grant from BWC Charities to improve inclusion and diversity in patient experience across the Trust.
We organise a cultural insight programme of awareness training to tackle the health inequalities. To make sure our patients and families are equally able to use our services and that no matter who you are or where you come from, you are treated in the best way for you to be able to have the best possible health outcomes that you can.
Interpreting
The Interpreting Service organise in-house interpreters and Link Workers (specialising in Maternity pathway). We also have access to interpreting agencies to cover the worldwide spread of languages and dialects. Our Dora electronic devices and Language Line telephone interpreting enable all appointments to include an interpreter whether face-to-face, telephone or virtual appointment
Patient Information
We manage patient information at BWC, with a focus on patient information leaflets. We all have a responsibility of providing up-to-date information to our patients and families.
Volunteering
We co-ordinate the wonderful volunteers to help out across the Trust. While volunteers work in many departments all over, we act as their central organiser.
One Stop Advice Point
Our partner organisations are here to offer you advice, support and signposting. Along with your healthcare, we want to ensure that you and your families get the best possible support.
You can access advice by referral through our staff or directly by contacting them at:
- Advice Lines
- Websites
- Drop-ins at our hospitals
List of Advice Providers at BWC
- Citizens Advice Bureau
- Birmingham Mind
- Act on Energy
- Contact
- Aquarius
- Birmingham Carers Hub
- Healthwatch
- Shelter
- Anawim
- Approachable Parenting
- Birmingham Healthy Minds
- Birmingham & Solihull Maternity & Neonatal Voices Partnership
Citizens Advice Bureau
The Citizens Advice Bureau is a network of independent charities offering confidential advice online, over the phone, and face-to-face for free. They are an independent service and are completely impartial, so can help you with issues including benefits, work, debt and money, housing, family, legal, immigration, health and much more. Their website allows you to “chat” with an advisor online or you can find your local centre and contact them via phone or their online contact form.
Main Advice Line (England) - 0800 144 8848
Relay UK if you can't hear or speak on the phone, you can type what you want to say: 18001 then 0800 144 8884. You can use Relay UK with an app or a textphone. There’s no extra charge to use it.
You can also check the Citizens Advice website directly for other contact numbers related to specific issues or concerns.
If you need immediate support and are a service user, patient or family member, we have partnered with Citizen’s Advice Birmingham and now have a dedicated CAB Advisor at both our Women's and Children's Hospital sites throughout the week from Monday to Friday, 9am until 4pm. There will be an opportunity to attend brief drop-in sessions for all or if you are in need of more in-depth conversations with our advisor, you will be able to book a consultation via our referral form below.
Contact form for our Citizen Advice Referral teamAccess to medical notes and health records
If you would like to access your medical notes or health records please contact our Patient Admin Services team directly on 0121 333 9714/0121 333 9705 or email bwc.accesstohealthrecords@nhs.net.
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.
Contact PALS via our online form
You can also find out more about PALS, what they offer and FAQs on their page.
Patient Experience
What matters to you matters to us. Whether it is compliments, comments or complaints, your feedback helps us improve your experience. And we want to hear what you have to say in a way that suits you.
Your comments, compliments, concerns and complaints make a difference.
Please know that raising a concern or complaint will not adversely affect the care or treatment you or a loved one receives from us.
Understanding how you've found your visit or stay at our Women's and Children's Hospitals can tell us:
- Where things are working well
- Where there might be risks so we can take action to reduce and remove them
- Where we need to make changes and improvements.
Your feedback gives us the chance to learn and improve
How you can tell us about your experience
There are many ways for you to get in touch with us and provide us with feedback so we can improve services within our hospitals.
Face to face
Please feel free to speak to your ward manager, doctor or nurse in person to tell them about your experiences. We always prefer to have the opportunity to speak to you face to face whenever we can.
Make a Star of the Month nomination for our staff
Has a member of staff or team gone above and beyond to make either you or your family’s time with us special?
No matter how big or small the act, if you feel that an individual or team has done something positive that deserves recognition please do nominate them to be our Patient and Family Star of the Month.
Feedback
You can find other ways to comment on our feedback page.