Patient Experience

Bradford Teaching Hospitals is committed to ensuring that patients have a positive experience of the care they receive. We are dedicated to listening to all patients and service users to ensure that we provide better, safer care.

We welcome patient feedback ranging from compliments and comments, to concerns and complaints regarding Bradford Teaching Hospitals only.

We appreciate at times things don’t always go quite as expected and we would encourage you to  raise your concerns to a member of staff in the first instance. In many cases it should be possible to remedy an issue immediately talking to the person you have already been dealing with, or perhaps their manager.

If you are not happy with the care and support you have received on a ward or within a department, we would urge you to contact the Trust’s Patient Experience Department (formerly PALS and Complaints).

• We are interested to hear any concerns, comments, and compliments you may have about Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• We can help you identify key issues
• We will help you identify how you would like your concerns resolved
• We will liaise with Trust staff on your behalf or refer you promptly to the most appropriate person
• We will advise and support you if you wish to make a formal complaint and identify independent advocacy and support
• Please note that if you are acting on behalf of a patient, their consent may be required before any issue or complaint can be examined.

All formal complaints should be made in writing using our Patient Experience Service contact form which should be downloaded and sent to the department or ward in question by mail or email (please see the contact details below). You will need to add your name, date-of-birth, address and contact number to the complaint.

However, if you are making a complaint on behalf of another, both their and your contact details will be required. Their consent may also be required before the complaint can be investigated.

A consent form will be posted and will need to be completed and returned. We will be happy to discuss this further if consent is not possible.

Complaints process

On receipt of your complaint you will receive an acknowledgement letter within three working days. You will be contacted within five working days by the investigating officer to discuss your concern and to advise when you will receive a formal written response.

Telephone: 01274 364810, Mon – Friday, 9am – 4pm

(Messages can be left on the answering machine and will be answered within two working days.)

Email: patient.experience@bthft.nhs.uk

Address: Patient Experience
Bradford Teaching Hospitals
Duckworth Lane
Bradford
BD9 6RJ

In person: By making an appointment on 01274 364810 or speaking to a member of staff at BRI’s main reception. However, a member of staff may not always be available immediately.

We are currently running a survey to gather views on the end-of-life care we provide at Bradford Teaching Hospitals.

If you are the family member or friend of a patient who recently spend their last days or hours in one of our hospitals, we would be very grateful if you could complete our survey, which only takes a few minutes to complete.

The feedback we receive will be used to ensure we provide the best possible care to end-of-life patients.

You can also find the results of the surveys we have received so far here.

The above film highlights the importance of effective communication with patients and staff at Bradford Teaching Hospitals.

Kindness and compassion are already fundamental to the service we provide, and effective communication is one way that we can show kindness in our work. The film aims to help our staff reflect on their practice and consider where we can enhance this – often through small changes to our practice. Anyone who has been seriously ill knows that kindness and empathy make it possible to cope with difficult times, and can even help recovery.

Patients who have received treatment for cancer in our Trust and their relatives told us why experiencing good communication matters. Through focus groups they identified the following five key communication standards we will always try to uphold.

Thank you to the patients involved in the film and all those who have helped develop these standards for effective communication.

If you have ideas about how we can improve the communication skills of our workforce, or have identified barriers that we need to overcome to enable better communication, please contact the Patient Experience team.

• Support for the bereaved
  Government guidance and information to help bereaved families, friends or next-of-kin make important decisions.
  Website
• Bradford District Care Trust
  Tel: 01274 251440
  Email: advice.complaints@bdct.nhs.uk
  This service deals with issues relating to district nurses, mental health services, palliative care etc.
• NHS England
  Tel: 0300 311 22 33
  Email: england.contactus@nhs.net
  This service deals with issues relating to GPs and community dental practices.
• Yorkshire Ambulance Service
  Tel: 03331 300549
  Email: yas.patientrelations@nhs.net
  Yorkshire Ambulance Service issues
• Clinical Commissioning Group
  Tel: 01274 237562
  Email: bdc.complaints@nhs.net
  We advise you to contact your service provider eg Leylands Medical Centre, Ridge Medical Practice, in the first instance.
• Independent Complaints Advocacy Team (ICAT)
  Tel: 01274 770118
  If you need independent help and support with your complaint you can contact ICAT, which is an independent advocacy service and not part of the NHS. You can visit the ICAT website. Or write to: ICAT, Rooms 21-29, 1st floor, The Tradeforce Building, Cornwall Place, Bradford, BD8 7JT.