"Disappointing service"

Dear Anonymous,

Please accept my apologies for the difficulties you have had.

From the information you have provided, the communication and investigation were lacking whether the staff member speaking to you was a doctor or a nurse. This is not what I would expect from our staff when we speak to patients. What I would expect, if I or a member of my family were receiving information is that the caregiver turned to face me, if possible, when conveying the outcome of an investigation, and communicate in a gentle tone, with care and compassion.

Clearly that did not happen here. If you do feel able to do so, and I can fully appreciate that you may have reservations about this, please call on 01279 82 72 11 or email pals@pah.nhs.uk.

The role of PALS which stands for Patient Advice and Liaison Service is to liaise on your behalf while guiding your query, working together with you to achieve a satisfactory resolution. Once they have gathered as much information as possible on your initial contact the next person you would hear from would be the clinical or operational leader of the service. The person will have looked at all of the medical records and observation recorded and mapped that against staffing, patient acuity and dependency across the service in order to gain a clearer insight into what was happening at that time and day to bring about the outcomes you experienced, in orderto bring out the learning from the events you describe, which they would then communicate to you.