This page explains how to raise a concern with us. This includes situations where you're not happy with the service provided by Public Health Wales, or if you have any concerns you think we should know about. We welcome all your views and want to learn from your experiences, good or bad.
If you have a general query about Coronavirus please visit our website for up to date information via the following link:
For easy reads and accessible versions of our Covid-19 website information, please visit:
To keep up to date with the UK Government response to Coronavirus, please visit:
For the Government response to FAQ’s re Covid-19, please visit:
Please note we are currently receiving a high number of enquiries in relation to Covid-19. We are doing our best to respond to enquiries and concerns as soon as reasonably possible and would encourage you to consider your use our complaints/concern mailbox during this time.
There will inevitably be some enquiries/concerns that do not fall within our remit and we therefore encourage you to redirect any concerns/enquiries in relation to GP’s/Hospitals/Pharmacies/Primary Care settings to the relevant Health Board where possible. Please see the following link outlining the health board structure in Wales with links to their websites:
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
An information leaflet has been produced for children to explain how they can raise a concern.
For support and advocacy please contact the Meic helpline below:
A concern is when you feel unhappy about any service provided by the Public Health Wales. By telling us about your concern, we can apologise to you, investigate and try to put things right. We will also learn lessons and improve services where they need to be better.
There are some things that we cannot deal with under the arrangements such as:
If you feel able to do so, the best place to start is by talking to the staff who were involved with your care and treatment.
They can try to sort out your concern immediately. If this doesn’t help or if you do not want to speak to staff who provided the service, then you can contact a member of the concerns team.
If you need help to tell us about your concern, please let us know, or contact your local Community Health Council. They provide a free and independent advocacy service, which is able to help patients or the people acting for them to raise a concern.
The CHC will offer advice and support, including putting you in touch with specialist advocacy services if you need them.
If this is something that has happened to you, you can raise the concern yourself. If you prefer, a carer, friend, relative or your local CHC can represent you, but you will be asked to agree to this.
It is best to talk to someone about your concern as soon as possible after the problem happened but you can take up to 12 months to let us know. If a longer time has passed but there are good reasons for the delay, tell us anyway, as we may still be able to deal with your concern.
Phone: |
(029) 2010 4311 |
Email: |
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Post: |
Rhiannon Beaumont-Wood, Public Health Wales |
Our complaints team is only operational during office hours Monday- Friday. If your concern is urgent please contact PHW on 02920 227 744.
If you have a urgent concern in relation to Covid-19 please call 02920 227 744 and press 1 which will take you to our National Health Protection Team.
Public Health Wales is implementing the Welsh Language Standards Regulations (No.7) 2018.
If you wish to raise a complaint relating to Public Health Wales’ compliance with the Welsh Language Standards, you can contact us in Welsh or English. You'll find more information and contact details in the document below:
We will:
let you know that we have received your concern within two working days (weekends and bank holidays not included);
Some cases might need further investigation under the Redress arrangements.
Redress is a range of actions that can be taken to resolve a concern where the organisation might have been at fault in causing some harm. It can include a written apology and explanation of what happened, an offer of treatment/rehabilitation to help relieve the problem and/or financial compensation.
If Redress may apply to your concern, we will let you know what this means in more detail.
The team in Public Health Wales responsible for dealing with concerns are:
The Handling Concerns Structure has been produced which illustrates how concerns are dealt with within Public Health Wales.
If your concern has been looked at by us and you are still not happy with our response, you can contact the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.