Before making a complaint, please take a moment to review our Frequently Asked Questions. You may find that the answer to your concern is already available there. There’s a whole host of questions answered, for example:
When you call 999, our aim is to provide you with care that meets your clinical need, which is delivered by the most appropriate clinician and is provided at a location that is most suitable to you and the wider healthcare community.
At times, conveyance may often be the most appropriate care pathway (for example, if you have complex clinical or mental health needs). However, our current strategy aims to support referrals to the most appropriate care provider, whether this is to the patients GP, a minor injuries unit, a walk-in centre or mental health facility. Alternatively the provider of care may be brought to the patient through the use of specialist nursing teams like community matrons, district nurses, out of hours services or other specialist providers.
Our staff will always try to avoid obstructing other road users whether this is when parking a vehicle or during transit. If you discover that your vehicle has been blocked in this could be because the condition of the patient being attended requires immediate intervention; as soon as the patient’s condition allows the ambulance crew will move the vehicle. On these occasions we understand how frustrating this may be, but we ask you to please be patient and the vehicle will be on its way as soon as possible.
In any emergency situation the patient will always come first. If you have a guide or assistance dog a decision on whether they can travel with you will be made on a case by case scenario. Please be assured that ambulance staff will do all they can to ensure the safety of your assistance dog while they provide you with treatment.
In line with the NHS Standard Contract, North West Ambulance Service has adopted the new national Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF). The framework sets out how we will learn from patient safety events to provide better and safer outcomes for our staff and patients.
The framework is made up of two elements – national guidance which sets priorities that must be investigated in depth, and a local plan, which has been developed by our trust. Our plan details our top priorities, how we should respond to incidents, and how investigations should be carried out.
You can download a copy of our new Patient Safety Incident Response Plan (PSIRP) via publications.
If you wish to report a safety incident/event, please email [email protected].
Alternatively, if you would like to raise a complaint, please complete the online form below after reading the below considerations first.
Raising a complaint with the use of AI
We want to hear about your complaint in your own words. We know some people find Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT helpful when completing forms. Please be aware that AI-generated text can sometimes make complaints too complicated or include legal references that are not relevant. This may increase the time it takes us to review your complaint or we may need to ask you to resubmit it. We follow the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman – Good Complaint Handling standards. Information about using AI to raise a complaint, has been taken from their guidance.
When you bring a complaint to us, we need to understand your personal experience and how the issues have affected you. Simple, clear language that explains what happened to you will always be more helpful than complicated, formal writing.
We know some people find AI tools useful to support with their writing. It is important to remember the risks of sharing your information with AI tools. Providers of these tools may use it to train their AI systems and may process it in different countries. Avoid entering sensitive personal information unless you are confident about how it will be used and protected.
Here are some suggestions to get the best results from AI tools while making sure it still sounds like you and your complaint:
- Keep your prompts focused on your experience and how it made you feel. A prompt is a question or instruction that you type into an AI tool to tell it what you want help with. You can use these examples (from the PHSO website) of useful AI prompts to help with your complaint.
- Do not ask AI to add legal arguments, use formal legal language or reference laws to try and make your complaint sound more ‘official’.
- It is important to check any AI-generated text to make sure it reflects your own personal experience and contains accurate facts.
Raising a complaint on behalf of someone else
If you are making a complaint on behalf of a patient, written consent from the patient (or Next of Kin/authorised representative if patient is deceased) will be required for us to fully respond to your complaint.
If you have received a response and remain dissatisfied
If you are not content with our response to your complaint please tell us so that we can review your case. If after the review you are still unhappy with the outcome you can seek independent investigation of your complaint from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. You can also view the NHSE/I guidance.