To receive a presentation from senior officers of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust on the Trust’s Patient Advice and Liaison Service.
Minutes:
BHRUT officers explained that there were Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) offices at Queen’ and King George Hospitals open 10 – 12 pm and 2 pm – 4 pm. There were also a number of PALS phone lines open 9 am to 5 pm daily. The PALS team comprised three full-time and one part-time officers with the support of several volunteers.
The main areas PALS dealt with included general advice & signposting to relatives, analysing and responding to patient comment cards and logging and responding to compliments about services. Translation and interpretation services were for the Trust were also managed by PALS.
A total of 6,432 cases had been logged by the service in 2014 of which 5,720 were concerns. The most common area of concern related to appointments with other main categories being admission issues and problems relating to treatment received.
PALS aimed to resolve concerns directly with services but it could be difficult to provide timely feedback to enquiries. Signposting to formal complaints processes could also be carried out of necessary. There were no set national or local timeframes for PALS responses.
The capacity of the PALS service was also a problem. The service standard of a response within 48 hours was now being audited. One option was to reduce the number of PALS phone lines in order to allow staff more time to respond to existing issues.
85% of cases referred were successfully resolved by PALS. PALS staff were now attending more support groups for e.g. diabetes sufferers and PALS awareness days had been held at both hospital sites in order to publicise the service. Next steps for the service would see a standard operating procedure drafted which would see escalation of unresolved issues to a general manager after five days and a clinical director after 10 days.
Another option being considered was to have a member of PALS staff working in the appointments call centre in order that queries relating to appointments could be dealt with more quickly. PALS officers could also be present in for example A & E or the children’s ward.
Officers accepted that calls to PALS needed to be answered in a more timely manner. Around 60% of reports to PALS related to Queen’s Hospital and 40% to King George.
Many of the appointments team at the Trust were quite junior and training was in progress with this team in order that they would go back to the consultant or service more with any queries that had arisen. The Trust Chief Executive added that the point of contact in the relevant service should resolve appointment concerns direct. He also wished to introduce alteration of appointments being undertaken on-line. There was a need to change the Trust’s culture to fix concerns at the point of contact. There was also a need to train consultants in the computer system in order that they could book appointments direct.
Some 93% of PALS calls were now answered which compared to 40-45% previously. At peak times such as Monday mornings however, the call answering rate was lower.
Of those issues not resolved by PALS, some related to other organisations while other matters were referred to the formal complaints process. The wording on the automated response to PALS e-mails had recently been changed to state there would be a contact within 48 hours rather than the issue being resolved within this time. The suggestion that PALS staff wear different coloured uniforms in order to be more recognisable was welcomed and would be considered. Lanyards and name badges were now worn by all staff.
It was emphasised that treatment would not be affected if people complained and research had shown that not many patients were in fact concerned about this.