Raising concerns or making a complaint
Our service
We welcome feedback, good or bad, as it helps us improve our services. If you have any concerns, please raise these with any of the following people:
- The person in charge of the ward, clinic or department, to try to resolve them in the first instance.
- The care group manager or matron for the department.
- Patient advice and liaison services (PALS)
- The hospital's duty manager if it is outside of normal working hours.
Contact information is available from department staff or switchboard on 023 8077 7222.
If you wish to make a formal complaint you may contact the patient support services team Patient advice and liaison services (PALS) to discuss how to proceed. Formal complaints will need to be in writing either by letter or email.
Alternatively, you may wish to write to the chief executive or head of patient and family relations (addresses below). However, your concerns will again be passed to PALS to determine how to take this forward on their behalf.
Please be assured that your complaint will be treated in confidence, will not affect your treatment, and you or your relative will not be discriminated against in any way.
Advocacy services
Advocacy services can help to support you when you are raising a concern or making a complaint. Please find below links to the local advocacy services:
Raising a concern or complaint leaflet
For more information and a feedback form you can print and post back to us, download our Raising a concern or complaint leaflet.
An easy-to-read version of how to make a complaint is available below.
You can also download the leaflet or listen to an audio version of this leaflet:
The leaflet is also available in our most commonly requested languages:
Our handling concerns and complaints policy
Addresses
If you contact us by email or letter, please include your:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Hospital number.
Head of patient and family relations
C level, Centre Block
Mailpoint 81
Southampton General Hospital
Tremona Road
Southampton SO16 6YD
Telephone 023 8120 6325 or email pals@uhs.nhs.uk
Chief executive
Trust Management Offices
Mailpoint 18
Southampton General Hospital
Tremona Road
Southampton
Hampshire, SO16 6YD
If you contact us by email or letter, please include your:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Hospital number.
Ombudsman
If after further investigation or a meeting, you remain unhappy with the way in which we have handled your complaint you can refer your concerns to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman who is completely independent of the NHS here.
Using artificial intelligence (AI) to write your complaint
When you contact us with a complaint, it is important that we understand your personal experience, what happened and how it affected you. We want to hear about your complaint in your own words; clear and straightforward language is often more helpful than complicated or formal writing.
Some people find AI tools (such as ChatGPT) useful when writing a complaint. However, AI-generated text can sometimes make complaints unnecessarily complex, include inaccurate information or add legal references that are not relevant to your concerns. This can make it more difficult for us to understand the issues you would like us to investigate and may delay our review of your complaint. In some cases, we may need to contact you to clarify the information provided.
Before using an AI tool, please be aware that any information you enter may be processed by the provider of that service. Some providers may use information entered into their systems to improve or train their AI models, and your data may be processed or stored outside the UK. You should avoid entering sensitive, personal, health or confidential information unless you are satisfied that you understand how it will be used and protected.
If you choose to use AI, we recommend that you:
- Focus on describing your own experience, including what happened and how it affected you.
- Avoid asking AI tools to add legal arguments, reference legislation or use formal legal language to make your complaint sound more official.
- Carefully review any AI-generated text to ensure it accurately reflects your experience and contains correct information.
- Check that the final complaint is written in your own voice and clearly explains the issues you would like us to address.
We are able to respond to your complaint more quickly and effectively when we have a better understanding of what happened, why you are unhappy and what outcome you are seeking.