We value your comments and compliments about services provided by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.  Learning from your experience will help improve services for you and other people.

While you are receiving treatment and care through the services provided by ELHT, the staff will make every effort to provide you with an informative, caring and satisfactory service with respectful and safe standards of care.

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust promotes a culture of being open to provide support to patients, carers, healthcare professionals and managers when things go wrong.  If things go wrong you should expect to be involved with and informed of how your concerns are to be handled.

To leave a compliment, please go to our patient experience page.

If you, your relatives or carers are worried about any aspect of your treatment or care, where possible ask to speak with the medical and nursing staff involved with your care as soon as your concerns arise.  They want to help you and will try to resolve your concerns immediately. If you are not happy with their response, you could ask to speak to the Ward/Departmental Manager or Matron.

If you feel your concerns have not been addressed adequately by local teams you may wish to proceed with involving the Customer Relations Team

If you are unable to make a complaint a relative, carer or friend can act on your behalf.  We will require your consent to disclose information to someone representing you.

It is important to make the complaint as soon as possible to enable us to deal with any concerns you have by carrying out a thorough investigation.  East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust guarantees to ensure that a patient's current or future treatment will not be adversely affected by a complaint being made.

The formal NHS complaint guidelines suggest that time limits to make a complaint are no longer than twelve months after an event or twelve months from the date of knowledge of the event, although no longer then two years in total.  These time limits can be waived in exceptional circumstances and even if a complaint if out of time limits, we will consider each case individually.

  • East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust aims to provide you with a thorough response to your complaint
  • Our aim is to give you a full explanation on completion of our investigation
  • Your complaint will be acknowledged within three working days of receipt by the Customer Relations Team
  • We will aim to give you a timescale for completion, following acknowledgement of your complaint. If your complaint is complex, we may require additional time to carry out the investigation; we may contact you to discuss this
  • If any further delays occur we will keep you informed of progress

There are some things which East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust cannot deal with under the NHS Complaints Procedure.  These include:

  • Complaints about private treatment
  • Complaints about Local Authority Social Services
  • Events requiring investigation by a professional disciplinary body
  • Events about which you are taking legal action
  • Complaints about Primary Care Services (e.g. your General Practitioner, Dentist etc.)
  • Other NHS organisations
  • Other NHS providers whose premises are on ELHT sites

However, there are occasions when your complaint may include more than one organisation.  In these cases we will always work in partnership to resolve your concerns.

If your complaint is detailed or complex, please write it down so we can be sure that we understand all of your concerns and send to the address provided at the bottom of this page.  Tell us what your expectations are and your desired outcome (we will ask you about this when we acknowledge your complaint).

What happens when we receive your complaint

Receipt of your complaint will be acknowledged in writing by a member of the Customer Relations Team.  The investigation will be undertaken by a senior member of staff.  Care will be taken to keep your complaint and information about you confidential.  You may be invited to meet with Trust staff to discuss your complaint and they will provide you with a detailed explanation.

You will receive a reply in writing from the Trust to any formal complaint about the organisation.  The staff involved will do their best to resolve any concerns you have and take any necessary action to improve the experience for others.

You may request to have your complaint considered for an independent review of your concerns.  For this, you need to write to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), indicating why you remain dissatisfied.

The role of the PHSO is to provide a service to the public in which they undertake independent investigations into complaints where the NHS appears to have not acted properly or fairly or has provided a poor service.

In most cases the PHSO will not investigate a complaint unless it has already been made to the Trust and all options of local resolution have been explored.

 

Customer Relations Team

Helpline (freephone) 0800 587 2586

Tel: 01254 733700

E-mail: complaints@elht.nhs.uk

Or write to us at:

Customer Relations Team 
Park View Offices
Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital
Haslingden Road
Blackburn
BB2 3HH

Patient Experience

Feedback from patients is important to us.  It helps us provide quality services that meet the needs of our patients.

To leave feedback please contact

PatientExperience@elht.nhs.uk

Or write to us at:

Patient Experience
Park View Offices
Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital
Haslingden Road
Blackburn
BB2 3HH

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