Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)
Contacting PALS
The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is here to help when you need advice, have concerns or don’t know where to turn. As a patient, relative or carer, sometimes you may need to turn to someone for help, advice and support. This is where the Patient Advice and Liaison Service can help.
This service is free and confidential. Our aim is to help sort out any problems or concerns you may have when using health services, agree the best way forward to deal with a problem and get it resolved as quickly as possible. We will do this by:
- Offering advice and support to patients, their families and carers
- Providing information on NHS services
- Listening and responding to concerns, suggestions or queries
- Talking to staff, management and other organisations on your behalf, where you do not want to raise the issue directly with the service concerned. For links to NHS services in Somerset, see ‘other healthcare providers’ below.
- Helping sort problems on your behalf.
We will always ask for your permission before personal information is discussed with others. Only in exceptional cases, where your safety or that of others must be considered, will we have to pass on information without your agreement. We will always tell you if we have to do this.
Contact details
Write to us:
NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board,
Freepost RRKL-XKSC-ACSG,
Yeovil, Somerset,
BA22 8HR
Telephone us: 08000 851067
Email us: somicb.pals@nhs.net
Use the form at the bottom of this page and post or email it to us at the above address
If you feel that the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) has not been able to satisfactorily resolve your concerns, further details about how to make a formal complaint will be provided to you. Alternatively, further information about how to make a complaint can be obtained from the Complaints section of this website.
Access to Dental care queries
NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board (ICB) is committed to improving access to NHS dental care across the county. As part of this effort, we have launched a procurement process to introduce additional NHS dental services in Chard and Crewkerne.
For more information please see our page - Dentists and Somerset
COVID-19 vaccination queries
The Spring/Summer COVID campaign will run from 1 April 2025 to 17 June 2025.
If you are coded as a Housebound patient, who is over 75 or also recorded as Immunosuppressed, you will be contacted by Somerset Foundation Trust (SFT) Vaccination Outreach team or your GP to book your housebound appointment.
For more information please see our webpage - Somerset COVID-19 Vaccination Programme Spring 2025
If you are unsure if you have been coded as housebound, or need support please contact the PALS team.
Hospital waiting lists - travel to other hospitals
NHS England announced on 31 October 2023, that any patient who has been waiting longer than 40 weeks and does not have an appointment within the next eight weeks will be contacted by their hospital via letter, text, or email, as announced by the NHS and government.
You do not need to do anything. Offers will be sent to eligible patients who will then be able to submit their details including how far they are willing to travel – 50 miles, 100 miles or nationally. NHS teams can then identify whether any alternative hospitals have capacity to see them sooner.
Other healthcare providers – GPs or hospitals
If your concerns or queries are about a GP practice, dental practice, optician or pharmacy you will need to contact either the individual practice or the PALS team, contact details above.
If your concerns or queries are about services provided in hospitals by other local health trusts, please click the links below for their PALS information and contact them directly:
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust (Includes Musgrove Park Hospital, Yeovil District Hospital, community and mental health services)
