Patient Experience Team
NHS Mid Essex aims to ensure that you receive the highest quality health and well-being services. We care about getting it right for you every time and, therefore welcome your comments, compliments, concerns and complaints.
We will take you seriously, listen carefully and do everything we can to ensure you are satisfied with our services. We are committed to learning from our patients’ experiences; good and bad.
Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)
If you would like help, advice, information and support about any of our services, this is available through the Patient Advice and Liaison Managers (PALS), who offer an independent and confidential service to all patients, carers, families and friends. Please click here for more information about PALS.
Comments, compliments and concerns
If you would like to comment on, compliment or raise a concern about any of our services please contact our Patient Experience Team by e-mail on me-pct.pals@nhs.net who will feed this back to our staff. Alternatively, you can contact the team by mail, please click here for our full postal address.
Complaints
If you wish to complain about our services, you can do so informally by talking to the Senior Nurse or Head of Department at the time. They will try to resolve your concerns straight away. If you feel your complaint is more serious or you would like to discuss it with someone else, you can do one of the following:
- Contact the respective service manager
- Telephone 01245 459 459 to speak to our Patient Experience Team.
Note: in order to ensure the highest standards of customer care, calls to and from our Patient Experience Team will be recorded and monitored for quality and training purposes.
Please ensure you include your full name and address on any correspondance as we will need this when we contact you regarding your concerns.
What will happen if I complain?
Complainants, their relatives and carers have the right to receive all treatment with dignity and respect and will not, under any circumstances, be discriminated against during or following a complaint.
We aim to acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days of receiving it. You will be contacted by a member of the Patient Experience Team to discuss the best way to resolve your concerns.
If you are making a complaint on behalf of another person (other than your own child if under 16), you will be sent a form with the acknowledgement letter. This asks them to sign an agreement for their personal information to be shared with you. We cannot disclose confidential information about a patient to a third party without the patient’s written consent. You may require the consent of a child under 16 who is considered to be Fraser competent.
It is most helpful to us, if you provide as much information as possible about your complaint, as our experience shows that this will ensure better progress can be made towards resolving these issues.
We do assure you that we welcome comments both good and bad, as this is one of the ways we can improve our services to patients.
Further information is available from the NHS website at: 
www.nhs.uk/conditions/complaints-about-NHs-services
www.dh.gov.uk/complaints
You can also contact the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) who provide a free, independent and confidential service to help you if you want to make a complaint about the NHS. You can contact the local Essex branch on 
0845 4561083 or Minicom 0845 3373067 Website: www.pohwer.net