At University College London Hospitals we aim to provide excellent healthcare. We encourage you to feedback on our services so that we can improve them.
If you would like to express appreciation or make a suggestion, please speak to the person in charge of the ward, clinic or department. You can also use the UCLH feedback and comment cards available on wards and departments. If you prefer, write to our Chief Executive:
Trust Headquarters, UCLH
2nd Floor Central
250 Euston Road
London NW1 2PG
or to the Complaints Manager at:
Email: uclh.
Telephone: 020 3447 7413
We have been advised that our response to some email accounts is being directed to spam or junk folders. Please check these if you do not hear from us in three working days
Online form:
Click here to use our online complaints contact form
You can also express appreciation or make a suggestion on the NHS Choices website.
Click here to choose a hospital and leave your feedback.
If you are not satisfied with your hospital experience, please speak to the person in charge of the ward or clinic in the first instance. We are keen to ensure the highest standards of patient care and will try to resolve any problems quickly.
If you are still not satisfied you can either contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) or the complaints team. The PALS team and the complaints team are separate departments, however both will make every effort to resolve your concerns.
Our PALS team will liaise with services at UCLH on your behalf to try and resolve concerns quickly and informally.
Our complaints team handles formal complaints about the UCLH’s services from patients and/or their representatives. Raising concerns about your hospital experience will not affect your hospital treatment in any way.
If you would like to make a formal complaint, please send your correspondence to uclh.
If you submit a verbal complaint to the complaints team, it will need to be transcribed and sent back to you to ensure that it captures everything, which can slow the process down, so we would encourage you to email us if you are able to.
We will aim to acknowledge your formal complaint within three working days and provide you with more information about our complaints process. Every effort is made to respond to complaints in writing within 30 working days or by an alternative agreed date.
Read our patient information leaflet: 'Making a complaint.
If you are contacting us because of an urgent clinical concern, please consider whether your GP, NHS 111 or your local Emergency Department (ED) would be better placed to deal with your enquiry.
You can do this within 12 months of the events concerned, or within 12 months of becoming aware of the problem. Your complaint will be recorded and managed in line with our formal complaints policy.
Once your complaint is received we will:
- Send you an acknowledgement letter or email within three working days of receiving your complaint
- Depending on the nature of your concern, we may contact you by phone to talk about what happened and to agree on how you would like the complaint dealt with
- Investigate and send a reply to complaints in writing within 30 working days or by an alternative agreed date.
If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint you can ask us to:
- Clarify points or give you further information
- Consider a meeting to discuss your concerns. You can bring a relative, friend or representative with you
- Look at your complaint again.
If you’re not happy with our final response to your complaint, and would like to take the matter further, you can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. The Ombudsman makes final decisions on complaints that have not been resolved by the NHS, government departments and some other public organisations. The service is free for everyone.
To contact the Ombudsman, call 0345 015 4033 or go to www.ombudsman.org.uk/making-complaint. They have an online form and will require your complaint to be in writing. There are time limits for the Ombudsman to consider complaints so you should contact them as soon as possible after receiving our final response. The Ombudsman will not usually investigate until you have completed the local resolution process.
UCLH is committed to ensuring that all of our users can access our complaints service. To enable users who are hearing impaired to make a complaint, the Text relay service may be of benefit.
Text relay is the UK’s text to voice relay service for deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people. Further details of how the service can be used are available at: http://www.textrelay.org
There is a free and independent advocacy service that can help you make a complaint about the NHS. This service can support with helping to draft letters of complaint, attending meetings relating to your complaint or to talk through the options you have available to you.
For details of your local advocacy service please call 020 3553 5960 or visit their website at www.
When we look into your complaint we will normally need to refer to your health records and our response may require reference to medical information about you. If you do not want us to do this please tell us but this may limit our ability to deal with your complaint. If you wish to discuss the implications of this further you can contact the UCLH Caldicott Guardian, who is a senior person responsible for protecting patient confidentiality and can be contacted at:
Dr G Y Shin
Caldicott Guardian
Consultant Virologist
UCLH
250 Euston Road
London
NW1 2PG
Email: uclh.
If you are making a complaint on behalf of someone else, we require their written consent for their personal information to be shared in this way (this is to protect our patients’ privacy and confidentiality and to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018).
All complaints are recorded on a central database (Datixweb). Reports on complaints are reviewed by the UCLH Board of Directors, the patient experience and engagement committee (PEEC) and local primary care trusts. These reports do not identify patients or complainants. We use the lessons we learn from complaints to improve services for patients.
All our complaints information can be provided in large print or translated into other languages. Please let us know if you require another language or format.
