Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)
At RJAH, we are passionate about patient experience and we want every one of our patients, together with their relatives, carers and visitors, to receive the best-possible service when being treated at, or visiting, our hospital.
However, sometimes things do not go to plan and we want to assure you that whatever happens we will always do our best to put things right and, equally important, try to prevent it from happening again.
The Governance Team are here to resolve any concerns, queries or questions that patients, relatives, carers and visitors may have by working alongside ward and departmental staff to resolve concerns quickly.
If your query or concern cannot be resolved in 5 working days then the patient or relative will be advised about the formal complaints investigation process.
PALS aim to:
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Provide a confidential service dedicated to helping patients and/or their representatives to resolve concerns or queries quickly
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Provide information about Trust services and signpost to other health-related issues or advocacy support services
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Listen to concerns, suggestions and/or queries about treatment
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Help the Trust to learn and improve as a direct result of patients' experiences
PALS staff can only help with queries to do with services provided by RJAH. The team can signpost to PALS Teams at other Trusts or NHS providers. Please see below for contact details of local providers.
We would recommend that in the first instance, you speak to a member of staff in the hospital who is providing your care. This could be a nurse, doctor, other clinician or a non-clinical member of staff, such as a medical secretary or Patient Access team. Staff members should be able to resolve any queries directly with you or find someone to help you.
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For appointment or admission date queries, please ring 01691 404360
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For help with transport queries, please ring 03300 535695
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Ring Switchboard on 01691 404000 to be put through to the clinician who is providing your care
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For medical record requests, please email rjah.sars@nhs.net
Contacting PALS:
The Governance Team are available Monday - Friday from 9am - 12pm by calling 01691 404606 (please note: this is a reduced service due to the current situation with COVID-19).
If you contact the team out-of-hours, please leave a message on the answerphone and a member of the team will get back in touch as soon as possible.
All Governance Leads and Governance Assistants are available to meet patients for face-to-face appointments by contacting 01691 404606.
You can also contact the team by:
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Emailing: rjah.pals.office@nhs.net
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Writing to: Governance Department, The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, Shropshire, SY10 7AG
Advocacy Services
If you need to make a complaint you can contact the Independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service.
This service are there to help people understand what their options are and to support through the NHS complaints process.
You can contact the Healthwatch Shropshire by:
Other Trusts PALS teams
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Royal Shrewsbury Hospital: 01743 261691 or 0800 783 0057
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Princess Royal Hospital in Telford: 01952 282888
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Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust: 01743 277689 or 0800 032 1107
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Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (includes the Redwoods Centre): 01785 783026
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Falck Medical Services Ltd (non-emergency patient transport): 0203 326 1326
Useful resources