Our trust values
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust

Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)

When things don't go to plan

The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) offer confidential advice, support and information on matters relating to your care and treatment at any of the trust's hospitals. We will listen to your comments and feedback and if something hasn’t gone so well, where we can, we will put things right as quickly as possible. We are a patient friendly, easy-to-access service designed to provide a personal contact to assist patients, relatives and carers.


Although the staff who look after you do all they can to make sure you are treated properly and promptly, we recognise that occasionally, things can go wrong. If you, your family or visitor have a concern about your care or treatment, where possible you should talk to someone who is close to the cause of your concern, such as the doctor, nurse or receptionist. We always like to try to resolve concerns at the time they happen and often, the matter can be resolved straight away. Likewise, we want the opportunity to try to stop it from happening again.

If you don’t want to raise your concern with the staff involved, you can ask to speak to the Matron or contact them via the main hospital switchboard.

If you feel that the member of staff has not adequately resolved your concern, or if you would rather raise your concern with someone else, you can contact the PALS service, which is based away from the wards. We will work with you to achieve a satisfactory resolution, whether you are requesting information, providing feedback, raising a concern or making a complaint.

If you are wishing to raise concerns or complaints on behalf of a patient, we will need written consent from the patient or a full copy (15 pages) of Health and Welfare Power of Attorney to enable a reply to be provided to you. This is simply because we have a duty to protect every patient's right to confidentiality concerning their clinical treatment.

  • Provide information and help answer questions about hospital care
  • Advise and support patients their families and carers. We understand that being in hospital can be an anxious time and you might need someone else to act on your behalf
  • Listen to your concerns if you are unhappy with an aspect of your care and help to resolve problems or concerns quickly, before they become more serious.
  • Organise interpreters for deaf people and non-English speakers
  • Listen to your views about our services and your ideas about how we could improve. We are a contact point for your feedback and suggestions about how services can be improved.

We are available Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays. You can telephone us: 0300 019 8499, if no one is available to take your call please either leave us a message or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and we will contact you as soon as we are able to. If you are leaving us a message or sending an e-mail, please ensure that you provide us with your full name, we will also need the patient’s full name, if that is not you, and you / their date of birth to enable us to locate you on the hospital records.

PALS contact number

UHD PALS: 0300 019 8499

If you call out-of-hours, please leave a message and a member of the PALS team will return your call as soon as possible.

PALS contact email address

UHD: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Support

If you need any help or advice to make your complaint you can contact The Advocacy People.

Their telephone information service is available on 0330 440 9000 from 10:00 - 17:00 Monday and 09:00 - 17:00 Tuesday to Friday and outside of these times a message can be left, alternatively you can e-mail them via: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or text 80800 using keyword PEOPLE followed by your message.

The service is also available via www.theadvocacypeople.org.uk/ or you can write to them at:

The Advocacy People
PO Box 375
Hastings
East Sussex
TN34 9HU

Contact information

At University Hospitals Dorset, we welcome you getting in touch with us. It is only through your feedback that we can improve and through your engagement that we can build a thriving community.

Our social media channels are a great way to stay up to date, to get to know our staff, and to connect with us. Please join the conversation here:



You can also get in touch with us in a range of other ways, please choose the site you wish to contact below for details.

If you have a complaint or compliments

If you have any concerns, compliments, or queries about your care, or would like advice about how to make a complaint, please click here for information

If you have a freedom of information request

Please see our Freedom of information page for more information.

Our Values #TeamUHD

Our values define who we are as #TeamUHD.

They underpin everything we do now and in the future. They define how we treat our patients and visitors, but also how we treat each other – our valued team mates and colleagues.

Our values will be embedded into every part of our organisation such as recruitment, appraisal and development.

They will help us create a welcoming, inclusive and innovative work environment for all at UHD so that we can deliver the best outcomes for people who need our care on the South Coast.

We are caring

"Kindness is free. If we can be kind to each other we do anything.” Cheryl Richardson, cardiology service manager and wellbeing champion, RBH

  • We are approachable and friendly to everyone, so everyone – staff and patients – feel comfortable in our hospitals
  • We are kind and caring to everyone we meet, so everyone feels welcomed and cared for
  • We are compassionate and understand individual needs, so we can provide the care that is right for all
we are one team

“We have the best team in this pandemic. We collaborate, help each other and support each other.” Zhu Zhibin (Morgan), surgical first assistant, RBH

  • We work collaboratively with other teams, partners, families and wider community, to ensure our patients receive the best care from the right people at the right time
  • We offer help and support to our colleagues, particularly when things are difficult, to ensure people feel supported and patient care is safe and timely
  • We offer positive encouragement and celebrate and share our successes, and will share these with patients and partners to assure them
we are listening to understand

“By listening to someone they feel valued – what people have to say is important. We always try to respect and take time to understand what people have to say.” Christos Christoforidis, service lead for environmental controls, Christchurch Hospital and EU Network lead

  • We communicate clearly and effectively so that we are understood, being mindful of our impact on others, to ensure everyone is fully informed
  • We actively listen to fully understand different points of view, to be able to give patients the best possible care
  • We are respectful and take the time to listen, and take time to fully understand everyone – staff and patients
we are open and honest

“It’s important everyone – patients and staff – feel safe and supported to speak up and be heard. We need it to learn and make improvements.” Helen Martin, Freedom To Speak Up guardian, UHD

  • We are honest with each other and offer constructive feedback
  • We learn from our experiences and mistakes and share our learning with colleagues and partners, and with our patients
  • We create an environment where it is safe to speak out, and want everyone – patients and staff – to feel safe to speak out too
we are always improving

“From our studies, we’re changing peoples' lives, picking up problems earlier and improving outcomes.” Stephanie Grigsby, Lead researcher, Maternity, Poole Hospital

  • We positively contribute and make suggestions to improve our service(s), so we can improve everyone’s experience of our hospitals, whether they are patients or members of staff
  • We are open to trying new ways of doing things and to keep learning from others, to enable everyone to have access to excellent care
  • We are curious and open-minded about developing ourselves, so that we are always aiming to be the best we can be
we are inclusive

“Inclusive to me means everyone feeling welcome, treated with respect and having their voice heard. Everyone should feel welcome here.” Marcea Green-Williams, deputy sister, Treatment and Investigation Unit

  • We value the diversity and difference that everyone brings by treating people with respect and dignity, as everyone who visits or works in our hospitals should be treated
  • We treat people fairly without favouritism or discrimination, to make sure your experiences of our hospitals as staff, and the experiences of our patients, is fair and equitable
  • We promote a sense of belonging and inclusivity, where we all have a voice and are able to contribute to the future of our organisation; whether staff, patient or our wider community
We are team UHD logo

Find out more

Our values thread throughout our services and the way we run our hospitals.

Our Board of Directors meetings

You can find information and up-to-date figures on our clinical and financial performance in our monthly papers for the Board of Directors meetings.

Board of Directors' meetings

The first part of the meeting of the Board of Directors is open to the public. If you would like to attend, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Dates for the Board of Directors meetings in 2025 are as follows:

  • 8 January 2025 at 09:30
  • 5 March 2025 at 09:30
  • 7 May 2025 at 09:30
  • 2 July 2025 at 09:30
  • 8 September 2025 at 09:30
  • 5 November 2025 at 09:30

For our 7 May 2025 meeting, elected and appointed governors and members of the public are asked to submit questions relating to the agenda by no later than noon on Sunday 4 May 2025, also to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

2025 meetings

2024 meetings

2023 meetings

2022 meetings

2021 meetings

2020 meetings

CQC

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regularly inspects and reviews NHS trusts and publishes a summary of our performance. To view their latest reports on our trust hospitals, please click on the links below:

Poole Hospital report (external link)

Royal Bournemouth Hospital report (external link)

What our staff think about working here

The NHS Staff Survey is carried out annually across England to capture staff views of their experience at work and of NHS services.

The most recent national staff survey was undertaken in autumn 2019 and completed by 2000 Trust staff.

You can see what our staff think about working at our trust by clicking here.

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