How to make a complaint

The Trust welcomes complaints as a way of learning from people’s experiences and improving our services.

If we haven’t been able to resolve your concerns locally or through the patient advice and liaison service (PALS), then you may wish to make a formal complaint. We welcome complaints as a way of learning from people’s experiences and improving our services.

The PALS team can give you help, advice and support in making a complaint. Also, they can put you in contact with local advocacy services if you feel you need some support to make your complaint.

As a Trust, we take complaints very seriously. All complaints are treated in confidence. We aim to resolve complaints quickly and fairly and will try to rectify any mistake or misunderstanding straight away.

It is helpful if you make a complaint as soon as possible. Usually we will investigate complaints that are made within:

  • 12 months of the event
  • 12 months of you realising you were unhappy about a specific situation or event

Complaints are not kept in healthcare records and will not affect ongoing or future treatment in any way.

Contact us

  • Write to: PALS office, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Room 11, Banham House, Bodmin Hospital, Bodmin PL31 2QT
  • Call 01208 834 620
  • Email the PALS team

What happens when you make a complaint?

We will try to contact you to talk to you about your complaint, or we will write to you and ask you to contact us so we can talk about the issues raised. This usually occurs within 3 working days.

If you are raising concerns on behalf of someone who has received care from us, then we will need to ask their permission to share with you any confidential and personal information.

We will discuss how you wish us to handle your complaint and discuss how long it is likely to take in order to investigate and respond to the issues you have raised.

If the issues also involve another local NHS organisation or local authority, with your permission, we will work together to provide you with 1 response.

We will provide you with an explanation of the points you have raised, details of what we have found out and, if required, what we will be doing to put things right.

What if I am still unhappy?

If you feel that you need support in making your complaint, then you can contact the Health Complaints Advocacy Service, the independent complaints advocacy service who will be able to help you.

  • Write to: Health Complaints Advocacy Service (HCAS), C/O The Advocacy People, PO Box 375, Hastings TN34 9HU
  • Call 0330 440 9000
  • Email The Advocacy People

If you are unhappy with the outcome of your complaint, you can ask the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to review. The Ombudsman will only consider complaints that have already been investigated by the Trust. You can call their complaint helpline on 0345 015 4033.