A newly established Patient Advocacy Service is offering support to people in the Clare area who want to make a complaint about the care they have received in a public hospital.
Free, independent and confidential information and support is to be provided by the Patient Advocacy Service to people making a formal complaint about their care in a Health Service Executive (HSE) funded public acute hospital.
People in the Clare area looking for support can contact the Patient Advocacy Service confidential helpline on 0818 293003 to speak to a trained advocate who will help them to get information on the HSE’s complaints investigation process, called ‘Your Service, Your Say’. The professionally trained independent advocate will support and empower the person making the complaint, with the aim of highlighting their views and concerns.
An advocate will explain to the person how to write a formal complaint and what to include in it. They will also help the person prepare for meetings with the HSE about their complaint, and they will help the person explore their options following a response from the HSE to their complaint.
Service Manager for the Patient Advocacy Service, Claire Lehane, said: “Until now, people in Clare and across Ireland who experienced difficulties in the Irish health service often felt there was nowhere for them to turn. The newly established Patient Advocacy Service offers patients the guidance and information they need to make a complaint when they are unhappy with the care they receive. It is free, independent and run by our professionally trained patient advocates who will use their compassion and knowledge to guide people through the HSE complaints process”.
For people in the Clare area looking for advocacy support to make a formal complaint, you can contact the Patient Advocacy Service helpline on 0818 293003. The helpline is open Monday to Friday from 10am until 4pm, including lunchtimes. You can also email info@patientadvocacyservice.ie.
The Patient Advocacy Service was comissioned by the National Patient Safety Office in the Department of Health in October 2018 to provide information and advocacy support to people wishing to a making a complaint through the HSE’s ‘Your Service, Your Say’ complaints process. The development of a patient advocacy service is an action in the Programme for a Partnership Government 2016. It was also a recommendation in the Health Information and Quality Authority’s (HIQA) 2015 report on the Investigation into Maternity Care in Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise and the Ombudsman’s 2015 report ‘Learning to get Better’.
This HIQA report was developed in response to investigations into Portlaoise maternity services and recognised the need for patient experiences to be recorded, listened to and learned from. The report acknowledged the need for such learning to be shared between hospitals, within hospital groups, and nationally through the wider health system. It recommended the establishment of an independent Patient Advocacy Service to support this learning.
Following a tender process, the National Advocacy Service for People with Disabilities (NAS) was awarded the Department of Health tender to develop the new Patient Advocacy Service. NAS began development of the new service in January 2019, the service went live on 31 October 2019, and it was officially launched by then Minister for Health, Simon Harris (FG) on 13 November 2019 at the National Patient Safety Conference in Dublin Castle.
