I would like to provide feedback
If you have any comments, compliments or feedback about our care at St Luke's, we would love to hear what you think. Your feedback will help us to continuously improve our care for our patients and their families.
How to complain about St Luke’s services
Our aim is to provide the best possible service to everyone who has contact with us. This may be within the In Patient Centre, our Community Specialist Palliative Care Nursing team, in patients’ homes or care homes, in our shops or at our fundraising events.
We continually look for ways of improving the way we work. You are in the best position to judge how we are doing and we certainly need you to tell us when we get it wrong. When mistakes do happen, we are committed to acknowledging them, apologising and putting things right for the future quickly and effectively. We are also pleased to receive letters of praise for our staff and volunteers, and for the service they provide.
You can make a complaint about an area of our work by writing to the Chief Nurse and Director of Care Services. The address to do this is: St Luke’s Hospice, Little Common Lane, Sheffield S11 9NE. Alternatively you can contact us as follows:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0114 236 9911
Or click the button below to fill in our complaints form
Make a complaint
If you require help or support in making a complaint we can provide it to you – please contact us through the email address or phone number above and we will arrange for someone to contact you to help you make your complaint. Someone else can also make a complaint on your behalf with your consent.
You can make a complaint with St Luke's using the link above. If you would like to log your complaint with the CQC, please click here.
The complaints process
When the Chief Nurse and Director of Care Services receives a complaint, she will correspond with you in the way you wish – by letter, email, telephone or at a meeting. We will confirm to you that we have received and recorded your communication within three working days.
A senior manager will investigate your complaint and the Chief Nurse and Director of Care Services will aim to send a full response to you outlining the findings within twenty-five working days of the receipt of your communication unless there are complexities that make this impossible. In these circumstances we will let you know of the delay, and when we expect to report to you in full. If we find the complaint is upheld we will let you know what we are doing to ensure matters are put right in order to prevent it happening again.
Sometimes complaints can be about more than one health and social care provider, for example a complaint could be about one of Sheffield’s hospitals as well as St Luke’s. In such cases, we will contact you to gain your consent to share your complaint with the other healthcare provider(s) in order that we can work together and send you one response to all of the points you raise in your communication.
If you are not happy with the way our Chief Nurse and Director of Care Services responds to your complaint, you may write to the Chief Executive of St Luke’s Hospice, who will consider the complaint made, the actions taken and our response to you, and consider whether any further investigation is required.
Anyone who makes a comment or complaint will not be discriminated against or treated differently by any member of staff for making such a comment or complaint. Details of comments and complaints will not be held on patient records and will not adversely impact on the care of any of our service users.
We are usually only able to respond to complaints that relate to circumstances that have arisen, or come to your attention, in the past 12 months, unless there are reasonable grounds for the delay and the complaint can still be reasonably investigated.
Getting help to complain
Many people are not well enough to make a complaint or raise a concern, or may feel unsure about what to expect. Please feel free to bring a friend or relative with you to talk about the concern or complaint, or ask them to help you write a letter. Alternatively, we can arrange for a member of staff to help you, or give you details of an independent advocacy service. This is a service which will offer you independent, free support during the complaint process.
Sheffield Advocacy Hub, run by Citizen’s Advice, is our local advocacy service for healthcare complaints for people who live in Sheffield. You can refer yourself into the service or St Luke’s can help you to do this. If you choose to self-refer, you can contact the Hub on 0800 035 0396 or you can email them at [email protected].
If you would like some help to access the advocacy service, you can speak to our In Patient Centre Manager, Sister Robyn Smith, our Community Team Manager, David Jones, or our Clinical Quality and Risk Lead, Annie Armitage, all of whom will be happy to support you. You can speak to Robyn, David or Annie by calling through our switchboard on 0114 236 9911.
If your complaint is not about healthcare
If your complaint is about another aspect of St Luke’s services, such as fundraising or retail, you can still contact us by email, phone or using the complaint form as detailed above. Your complaint will be directed to the appropriate member of staff and be dealt with within the same timeframe, although these complaints might be regulated by a different regulatory body.
External regulators
St Luke’s has a number of external regulators. Most of these require that you have notified St Luke’s of your complaint so that we can investigate it before you raise it with the regulator. Regulators include: The Charity Commission, The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman, the Fundraising Regulator and the Information Commissioner’s Office. We can provide details of other regulators who may be able to support you if you are dissatisfied with the way St Luke’s has responded to your complaint.
Contact us
If you're struggling to access this information or would like to speak to someone directly, please call 0114 236 9911 or email [email protected]
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The information you provide on this form is confidential and will be processed in accordance with the St Luke’s privacy policy.
