At Liverpool Women’s University Hospital we are continuously working to ensure that our women, babies and their families have a positive experience. We aim to provide the highest standards of care and facilities to all our patients and visitors.

We accept that sometimes you may have some comments, suggestions or complaints about your experience that you wish to share with the Trust. We welcome your feedback to help the Trust continually improve the services we provide.

We have a flexible process in place to assist our patients and visitors if they have any comments, suggestions or complaints they wish to bring to the attention of the Trust.

How can our team help you?

  • We will listen to your concerns, queries, feedback, and suggestions for making improvements
  • We will advise and support patients, their families, and their carers with any issues they raise
  • We will attempt to resolve any problems quickly on your behalf by liaising with the relevant teams during your time in our care
  • We will share your feedback and suggestions for improving our services with the managers and leaders of the relevant service
  • We will help to facilitate the complaints process if you decide to make a formal complaint at any point in the future.

Unfortunately, there are some things that the PALS service cannot assist you with:

  • We are unable to book, expedite or change appointments. To do this, please refer to your most recent correspondence from the hospital and contact the relevant department.
  • We cannot change or affect a medical decision that has been made. This can only be discussed between you and the relevant clinical team.
  • We are here to support you with resolving any issues or complaints you may encounter in the most compassionate way possible but please remember that our team members are not counsellors and are not equipped with the appropriate training and expertise to deal with some issues that may be raised. However, the team will always try to signpost you to someone else who can support you if they cannot.
  • We cannot give you medical advice or comment on medical diagnoses or procedures. However, the team will listen to you and refer the information you provide onto our clinical experts.
  • We are here to listen to our patients and families about their experiences of their care at Liverpool Women’s. We are unable to facilitate any other requests outside of this remit e.g. requests to share promotional or event information across the hospital will not be answered.

How to contact us

Often the best way of raising a concern or resolving an issue is to speak to a member of staff in the relevant service first. You can request to speak to the ward manager, or most senior person in charge of a service who is available, at any time. In many cases, when issues are discussed in an open and calm way between a patient and clinicians, the matter can be resolved quickly and hopefully to you satisfaction.

Our dedicated Patient Experience team is here to help you with any comments, suggestions or complaints and we always welcome your feedback. There are a number of ways you can contact the team Monday to Friday, 8.30am-4pm

If they are away from their desk when you call, please leave your name and contact details and a member of the team will get back to you as soon as possible.

You can ask at the hospital’s main reception to contact someone from the Patient Experience team to come and discuss your concerns with you.

Outside of normal working hours you can use the same contact details above to leave a message. The Team will contact you on the next working day. 

If your issue cannot wait until the next working day ask for the duty manager to be contacted via the main hospital switchboard on 0151 708 9988.

The Patient Experience team will do everything in their remit to assist you, but please show respect when interacting with them. They are here to help all patients and visitors. Excessive and continuous contact about an issue that is being looked into, placing unreasonable demands on staff, or any form of aggression may result in the team limiting contact and potentially escalating the matter further.  

We always aim to resolve any issues with patients face to face while you are in our care. However, we understand sometimes that you may wish to contact us at a later date.

You can share feedback, suggestions, or request to make a formal complaint in writing by emailing: PALS@lwh.nhs.uk or via post to:

Patient Experience Team
Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust
Crown Street
Liverpool
L8 7SS

If you wish to make your formal complaint directly with the Chief Executive or if you are not satisfied with the process or outcome following your contact with the Patient Experience Team please write to:

The Chief Executive
Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust
Crown Street
Liverpool
L8 7SS

In any correspondence you send, it would be helpful if you could include the following:

  • Your full name, address and telephone number 
  • Your preferred method of contact – in writing, telephone, email 
  • Your patient hospital number (if known)
  • The dates of your stay in hospital or outpatient appointment/s
  • The ward or department concerned and the names of any relevant personnel
  • Details of your complaint.

What if your issue or complaint cannot be resolved?

We hope to resolve any issues with you but if this is not possible we will provide you with information on the independent complaints advocacy service Healthwatch Independent Complaints Advocacy.

Tell us how we are doing - complete our Friends and Family Test

The Friends and Family Test (FFT) is a way for people to provide anonymised, real time feedback about the NHS service they are using. It asks if people would recommend the service they used to friends or family.

How do I take part?

There are a number of ways for you to complete the FFT. These are:

  1. Take the online survey.
  2. Leave a questionnaire (located around the Hospital/Clinic Areas) in the FFT collection boxes in our Hospital/clinics.
  3. Phone the Patient Experience team on 0151 702 4353 and tell them about your experience.

If you use more than one service you can complete a separate survey for each service you’ve used.

Please note, completing the FFT is voluntary.

FAQs

No. All information and details of complaints are held by the PALS/Patient Experience Team. Your patient hospital notes will not contain any information to indicate that a complaint has been made.

We will investigate complaints that are made within 12 months of an event. Every effort will be made to answer questions received about care before this time but it may not always be possible to answer your specific questions.

Yes, we respect patient confidentiality at all times.

If you would like help when making a complaint, staff at n-compass - Liverpool Advocacy Hub would be happy to assist. The Hub is an independent and confidential single point of contact which will provide information, advice, and support to the public on issues relating to the Health Service.

Head Office
Unit 1, Edward VII Quay
Navigation Way
Preston
PR2 2YF

It is recognised that patients do, at times, wish to make a complaint but they may feel too unwell or unable to deal with the matter themselves. In such circumstances, we would be willing to accept a complaint from a close relative, eg. husband, wife, son, daughter on the condition that a written consent, signed by you, is provided stating that you have nominated a named person to act on your behalf in respect of the complaint.

In cases where a patient is incapable of providing consent, a close relative or next of kin may be accepted as the complainant.

We will make every effort to make sure we investigate your concerns thoroughly and answer your questions. If you remain dissatisfied, you may wish to refer your complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is not obliged to investigate every complaint, with the decision on any action being entirely at his/her discretion. It should be noted that the Ombudsman would not usually review a case that has not been through the NHS Complaints Procedure, as detailed in this leaflet, or a case that is being handled by solicitors or the courts.