Complaints and compliments

If you have significant concerns or your concerns have not previously been addressed adequately then please contact our Formal Complaints team.

Once contact has been made with our Formal Complaints team, they aim to provide initial acknowledgement within three working days, at this stage they will arrange to telephone you to discuss our complaints process in more detail.

In order for our Formal Complaints team to be able to fully look into your concerns and respond to you, they would request you to submit your complaint to them either via email or in writing providing specific questions you wish to be answered, along with confirming what resolution you are seeking. This ensures there is no ambiguity and highlights the important areas of concern, rather than the investigation being completed under the perception of the staff involved, which then runs the risk of key aspects being missed and, therefore, unanswered.

When our Formal Complaints team have received your questions and resolution information, they will send an acknowledgement letter detailing the questions that will be looked into. Once you have agreed the questions, our Formal Complaints team will start the complaints process and will then aim to provide you with a written response within an agreed timeframe.

Our Formal Complaints team are based at both Musgrove Park Hospital and Yeovil Hospital, if you should require their assistance, please find their contact details on this page.

If all options to resolve the complaint locally have been exhausted you can request that the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) undertakes an independent review of your complaint.

The PHSO provides a service to the public by undertaking independent investigations into complaints where a local resolution has not been achieved. The PHSO has nursing and medical staff who consult on cases and will provide expert clinical opinion to assist the PHSO in making any recommendations to the hospital. Please see visit the PHSO website for full details.

Phone 0345 015 4033 or email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk

Postal address:

Parliamentary AND Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), Millbank Tower, Millbank, London, SW1P 4QP

If you want to raise a concern with either PALS or the Formal Complaints team but require independent support or advocacy from a source external to the hospital, SWAN Advocacy can help you. SWAN can help you write letters and will attend meetings at the hospital with you. Please see visit the SWAN website for full details.

Phone 03333 447 928 or email: somerset@swanadvocacy.org.uk

Postal address:

SWAN Advocacy, Hi Point, Thomas Street, Taunton, Somerset, TA2 6HB