It is our goal to provide high quality care for all patients all the time. Your views, both positive and negative, are important to us and help us to continually improve.
If something is not right with the care you or a relative have received, talk to the colleagues
involved. They will do their best to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. If it is not possible to resolve the matter in this way, they may ask you whether they can involve a more senior colleague.
Sometimes you may prefer to talk to someone not directly involved in your care and on these
occasions, you can contact the patient advice and liaison service on esh-tr.patientexperience@nhs.net or 0300 131 4784.
If you feel that you have raised your concerns through these channels but you still feel unhappy about your care or treatment, you may wish to make a complaint.
Make a complaint
We hope to resolve any concerns swiftly and before there is a need to instigate a full complaints process, however if you do need to complain, you can do so in writing or verbally or online.
We take all feedback, including complaints, very seriously. Please be assured that if you raise a concern or make a complaint, we will look into it. Our investigation will have no impact on the care that you or a loved one receive.
You can ask a friend or relative to raise a concern or complaint on your behalf. If you do, we’ll ask you to sign a consent form, giving us permission to disclose your personal information to this person.
We’ll acknowledge your complaint within three working days and investigate the issues you’ve raised. At this point we will tell you when you can expect a response.
We may contact you by phone or email to make sure we fully understand your concerns.
Once the investigation is complete, you’ll receive a written response explaining the outcome of our investigation. If we have identified areas where our services fell below the expected standard we’ll tell you what actions we intend to take to improve things.
If you remain unhappy, please do come back to us and we will endeavour to answer your concerns
The complaints process cannot look at disciplinary issues or ‘strike off’ or suspend the registration of a health professional.
For more details around how we manage all aspects of patient feedback you can read our policy and procedure:
External support with making a complaint
If you would like guidance or support in making a complaint, you can contact the Independent Health Complaints Advocacy.
If you are not satisfied with our response you can request an independent review of your complaint. You will need to write to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. You must take your complaint to the Ombudsman within a year of when you first became aware of the problem.
Healthwatch East Sussex gather people’s views of health and social care services in the county and make sure they are heard by the people in charge. They also offer support to those accessing healthcare in East Sussex. To learn more or get in touch, visit their website.
Learning from complaints
We are committed to learning from all feedback, including complaints, and using our learnings to improve services.