Independent Health Complaints Advocacy
The services that make up our National Health Service (NHS) work extremely hard. However, despite their best efforts at times things can go wrong, or you do not receive the service that you expect for yourself or someone you care about.
Before making a formal complaint you may wish to speak to your local Patient Advice Liaison Service (PALS) service.
The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) can provide a quick and informal response to your concerns, but it is not mandatory to use their service.
In Berkshire you can contact your PALS service using the below button:
What if you wish to make a formal complaint?
You have the right to make a formal complaint to the NHS service that provided the service that led to your complaint. This gives them the opportunity to improve their services. You can also complain directly to the service using their internal complaints procedures or to the Integrated Care Boards (ICB) that covers your area.
You must either complain directly to the service, or the ICB, you cannot complain to both.
Making a complaint
Making a complaint can be difficult, and we have produced a self help pack that includes guidance about how to organize your complaint, including the outcomes (what you want to happen) you are looking for in response to your complaint. We have also included a template in Microsoft Word that may help you.
You can download by clicking the button below…
I am an unhappy with a response to my complaint
If you are unhappy with the local response from your NHS service (often called stage 1 of the complaints procedure) you can then write to the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) who can independently investigate the complaint.
Advocacy Support with my complaint
Like all advocacy services, we look to empower people to do things for themselves, as this promotes independence.
However, you may have some difficulty in doing this yourself as you have some impairment that makes this difficult, and have no one who could support you to make the complaint yourself.
In this case you can contact us for advocacy support if you live in Slough or Wokingham Borough (you pay your council tax to them, or would pay if you paid council tax).
If you do not live in Slough or Wokingham Borough, you will need to contact your local advocacy provider. It does not matter where the service you received is located, the support on offer is from your local advocacy provider commissioned by your Local Authority.
This service is called the Independent Health Complaints Advocacy (IHCA) service, and it is:
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Free
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Confidential (unless you share information that endangers you or others)
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Independent of the NHS