Healthcare complaints

What to do if you have a complaint about health care.

Below are details of organisations that can help you with advocacy and making complaints about health care services.

Healthwatch

Healthwatch is an independent statutory body helping users of health services. They take feedback and use it to advocate for improved standards of care generally. They also provide help and advocacy for individual cases.

See the Healthwatch West Sussex website.

Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)

Every NHS trust has a PALS service. Their function is to support patients and families, including providing information and advice, record issues you want to raise, help sort out problems and detail how to make complaints.

You can find contact details of the PALS service for our local NHS trusts on their websites:

  • University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust covers:
    • Worthing Hospital
    • St Richard's Hospital (Chichester)
    • Royal Sussex County Hospital (Brighton)
    • Princess Royal Hospital (Haywards Heath)
    • Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital (Brighton)
    • Sussex Eye Hospital (Brighton)
    • Southlands Hospital (Shoreham-by-Sea)
  • Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust covers:
    • Crawley Hospital
    • Horsham Hospital
    • East Surrey Hospital
    • Caterham Dene Hospital
  • Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust covers community services such as (but not limited to):
    • Autism and Social Communication Assessment Pathway
    • Child Development Services
    • Children and Young People's Community Nursing Services
    • Children's Audiology Service
    • Children's Speech and Language Therapy Service
  • Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust covers:
    • mental health, including CAMHS
    • learning disability
    • neurodevelopmental services.

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

The CQC are the independent regulator or health and social care in England. You can contact them to find and compare services in addition to making complaints.

NHS Ask Listen Do

The NHS have 'Ask Listen Do' resources to help with feedback, concerns and complaints regarding learning disability and autism services.

See NHS Ask Listen Do.