A Patron’s Visit: Witnessing the Impact of Advocacy Focus
A message from our patron, Jake Mills. One of the highlights of my visit was spending a day at the...
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On many occasions, individuals approach Advocacy Focus because they feel unfairly or poorly treated by the NHS. This service is designed to support anyone who feels they cannot initiate and complete a formal complaint alone.
We can support Trafford residents the NHS complaints process. Every person has the right to be listened to and treated with respect and dignity throughout the process.
Anyone can have the support of an Independent Advocate during a complaints process
A person can make a complaint on someone else’s behalf, either with their written permission, or in the case that they have passed away
A person can make a complaint on behalf of someone who lacks mental capacity, or on behalf of a child under 18 years old if they are unable to complain themselves.
Advocacy Focus can support our service users at any stage of the complaints process. We offer the following resources:
Self-Help Guide: In many cases, people do not need an advocate to help them with a complaint, but may benefit from accessing simple to understand information to make things easier. We have a downloadable self-help guide that includes information available about the NHS complaints process, how to make a complaint, writing an NHS complaints letter, and how to access medical records.
Download our Self-Help Guide.Your Advocate can:
It is important to understand that your Advocate cannot advise or influence your decisions in any way and that they are there to provide you with information and the possible options, not their own opinions. Support can be accessed over the telephone, email or by a face-to-face meeting with an advocate at our drop in’s and can be provided at any stage of the complaints process.
At Advocacy Focus, if a complaint is not resolved in a way that you are happy with, we can help you to take your complaint to an Ombudsman, in the hope that the appropriate regulatory body will hold them to account for their actions.
Download our Guide to Making a Healthcare Complaint
We don’t currently provide Social Care Complaints Advocacy in Trafford, however we have produced the following fact sheet which may be useful if you are thinking of making a social care complaint: Social Care Complaints Fact Sheet.
To request a printed copy of the self-help complaints pack, and for further information about our supportive drop in sessions please email admin@advocacyfocus.org.uk, alternatively, you can speak to our friendly team on 0300 323 0965.
