Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)

What is PALS?

Our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is available to provide patients, families and carers with confidential, on-the-spot help and advice. PALS can be a port of call for support and also provide important information for patients about our services.

PALS aim to:

• Resolve problems quickly on your behalf;
• Listen to your concerns, suggestions and queries;
• Act on your comments to improve the patient experience in our hospitals;
• Advise and support patients, their families and carers; and
• Supply information about services our hospitals provide.

How do I raise a concern?

Most patients are happy with the care they receive in our hospitals, but we realise that there may be times when we do not get things right. When this happens, we need to know.

Most concerns can usually be sorted out straight away by the staff caring for you or your relative or friend. Tell them what is worrying you and they will do their best to help you. Ask to speak to the Nurse in Charge, the Ward Manager or the Matron as they will want to help.

If you want to talk to someone not directly involved in your care or the care of your relative or friend, you can speak to someone in our PALS Team. 

You can ask a member of staff to contact PALS for you. You can phone or email PALS Team at either Epsom or St Helier (see the contact details below). 

How to contact PALS

PALS is open between 10am and 4pm Monday to Friday, except bank holidays. As a precaution during the Covid-19 situation, we are asking any visitors to PALS to make an appointment with us first.  We remain contactable by phone, email and are also able to offer a virtual face-to-face (online) service by appointment. Thank you for helping us to keep our patients, visitors and staff safe.

PALS contact details

Phone: 020 8296 2508
Email: est-tr.PALS@nhs.net
Textphone (via Text Relay): 08001 020 8296 2508
Text message (deaf or hard of hearing only): 07975 232021

A member of the PALS Team may not always be available to answer your call, as they may be speaking with a patient or their loved one on a different call. If you leave a message on the answer phone, a member of the team will return your call as soon as possible and no later than three working days.

If you have an urgent concern regarding a current inpatient outside these hours, please call 020 8296 2000 and ask the switchboard to contact the Clinical Site Manager.

What should I do if I am still not happy? (Complaints)

PALS are able to advise you about your options when raising a concern, including making a complaint.

If after contacting PALS you are still unhappy and want to make a complaint, please visit our complaints section for information about what to do and the complaints process. You can also find further information about making a complaint in our Your feedback and raising concerns leaflet[pdf] 1MB.