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 using our online form. You can also come and speak to us, or send us a letter.
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 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.
Using AI to support your complaint
We want to hear your concerns in your own words and understand how the experience affected you or your loved one. If you use AI tools to help with writing, please make sure the wording still reflects your experience. Very long or unclear AI‑generated text can slow down our review and we may need to ask you to resubmit.
Simple, clear language is best. Please explain what happened, the specific questions you want us to answer, and the outcome you’re hoping for.
What happens when I make a complaint
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 complaint.
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.
The National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations (2009) state that a complaint should be made within 12 months of the date of the incident that is the source of the complaint or within 12 months of the date of discovering the source of the complaint.
For more details around how we manage all aspects of patient feedback you can read our policy and procedure: