NHS Complaints Advocacy

Summary

NHS complaints advocacy service can help you if you, or someone you know, has not had the care or treatment you expect to receive from your NHS services and you want to complain.

Advocacy is there to help you understand and go through the complaints process. Advocates will support you until you receive a satisfactory conclusion or until you no longer want advocacy support.

Content

Advocacy is a free and confidential service. Advocates are independent to the NHS. The NHS Complaints Advocacy service is there to:

• Give you information about different NHS complaints processes.
• Help you understand the different options you have in raising your concerns.
• Offer you support to help you think about your complaint and what you want to get from making your complaint.
• Help you make your complaint if you want us to.

If you would like an advocate to assist you now or would like to talk to someone about advocacy, please contact the Helpline on 0300 330 5454.

You can complain about any aspect of NHS care and services but might include:

• poor treatment or care
• the attitude of staff
• poor communication
• waiting times
• lack of information
• failure of diagnose a condition.

NHS Complaints Advocacy can only support you if your complaint is about NHS funded healthcare. There are some limits on what can be achieved using the NHS Complaints Procedure. Where the outcome you are looking for is more likely to be achieved through another route, we can explain this and give you information about who best to contact instead. We can support you to make this contact, where required.