West Suffolk Hospital launches new service to help and advise patients

September 20, 2001

A Patient Advocacy and Liaison Service (PALS) to provide on-the-spot help, advice and support to patients at the West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust, was launched on Thursday 20th September.

The PALS service is available until 8pm every weekday. People wanting information about services can speak to a liaison officer who will respond or, if they are not able to, contact someone who can.  The aim is to resolve any queries or concerns that patients, relatives and visitors might have as soon as possible.  Heather Stephens, Thelma Wingfield and Jo Lucas form the PALS team, and have direct access to Johanna Finn, Trust Chief Executive.

A patient information website is also being developed, to provide the public with information about the Trust and other local NHS organisations.

A key theme of the NHS Plan is to empower patients by improving the quality of information available to them, said Heather Stephens, Senior PALS officer. We are pleased to be part of this pioneering work to increase patients access to information.  I would ask anyone who has a query about the services provided by the West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust to contact the Patient Advocacy and Liaison Service on 01284 712 555.

“The Patient Advocacy and Liaison Service is all about improving customer care,” said Johanna Finn.  “Patients and relatives who have queries about our services are able to contact the PALS Service and be given a swift and efficient response.”

The West Suffolk will relay its experience in setting up the scheme to other trusts who will be implementing schemes next year.  PALS will operate in every NHS trust including primary care trusts by April 2002.

The PALS initiative follows a wide-ranging consultation exercise involving patients, the general public, NHS staff and professional bodies. The feedback showed that patients felt they did not have a strong enough say in the health service. Most importantly they said they wanted on-the-spot help when things went wrong. PALS is intended to provide this help.