PALS Officer

NHS; Greater London; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in southwest London is looking for a PALS Officer to act as a point of contact for patients and their families, providing support, resolving complaints and gathering feedback. The role demands excellent communication skills and previous experience in customer service or PALS. The ideal candidate will contribute to improving the patient experience within the Trust while ensuring compliance with relevant regulations. This position offers a unique opportunity to directly impact patient care and service delivery.

Qualifications

• Previous PALS experience or equivalent customer service experience.
• Experience of managing difficult and sensitive situations.
• Knowledge of the purpose and function of PALS.

Responsibilities

• Point of contact for patients and carers.
• Support and actively listen to patients and carers.
• Record enquiries and action taken on the Trust Risk Management Database.

Skills

Excellent communication, negotiation and influencing skills

Ability to liaise effectively with staff and the public

Good working knowledge of database, spreadsheet and word processing applications

Education

GCSE A-C or NVQ Level 3 or equivalent knowledge and experience

Tools

Datix

Job description

Go back St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

PALS Officer

The closing date is 23 January 2026

The Complaints and Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) department is led and delivered by Group Corporate Nursing which is accountable for the strategic oversight and management of the Complaints and PALS team at both Sites.

The role of the PALS department is to collect feedback, give non-clinical advice and support with rapid response resolution to informal problems. The PALS team identifies improvement opportunities arising from feedback and monitors the implementation of actions. The PALS department is able to help resolve simple concerns from patients, their families and carers quickly. The PALS service is provided face-to-face, by telephone and e-mail.

The PALS and Complaints departments also ensure that concerns are managed according to Group and Trust policy and the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009, ensuring that information from concerns is used to improve the Trust services at Site and across the Group.

***Please note that previous applicant need not apply and that this vacancy may close early should we receive a large volume of applications***

Main duties of the job

The main tasks include:

• Point of contact for patients and carers
• To support, respect and actively listen to individual patients and carers, to resolve problems and concerns, by being an accessible and visible presence within the Trust
• To work with General Managers, Clinicians and Matrons and others to facilitate speedy resolutions and solutions that will improve the patient experience.
• To record the nature of all enquiries to the PALS team, the action taken and the outcomes onto the Trust Risk Management Database (DATIX).
• To monitor the data entered onto DATIX, identifying, and reporting on themes and trends to inform and influence service improvements.
• To signpost patients, carers and their families to the correct routes
• To collect feedback on services and share this with the relevant teams
• To provide inpatient support for patients requiring resolutions on the ward after local resolution has failed
• To receive compliments and share this with the relevant teams

***For further information on the main duties of the role please refer to the attached Job Description***

About us

With nearly 9,000 dedicated staff caring for patients around the clock, they are the largest healthcare provider in southwest London. Their main site, St George's Hospital in Tooting - one of the country's principal teaching hospitals - is shared with St George's, University of London, which trains medical students and carries out advanced medical research. St George's Hospital also hosts the St George's, University of London and Kingston University Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, which is responsible for training a wide range of healthcare professionals from across the region. As well as acute hospital services, they provide a wide variety of specialist care and a full range of community services to patients of all ages following integration with Community Services Wandsworth in 2010. St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of 1.3 million across southwest London. A large number of services, such as cardiothoracic medicine and surgery, neurosciences and renal transplantation, also cover significant populations from Surrey and Sussex, totalling around 3.5 million people. The trust also provides care for patients from a larger catchment area in southeast England, for specialties such as complex pelvic trauma. Other services treat patients from all over the country, such as family HIV care and bone marrow transplantation for non-cancer diseases. The trust also provides a nationwide state-of-the-art endoscopy training centre.

Job responsibilities

• To assist the patients pathway through the Trust, advising them of their rights and the standards they can expect of the services available to them.
• To provide practical non-clinical advice and support to patients, their carers and families. This could mean arranging and co-ordinating internal and external services to assist patients, writing letters and/or making telephone calls on their behalf.
• To provide advice and information about the Trusts formal complaint procedure and provide a seamless service for the patient or carer who has concerns so they are dealt with through the most appropriate route.
• To access information for patients on some aspects of the Trusts services.

Person Specification

Education

• GCSE A-C or NVQ Level 3 or equivalent knowledge and experience.

Experience

• Previous PALs experience or equivalent customer services experience
• Experience of managing difficult and sensitive situations
• Knowledge of the purpose and function of PALS.
• Experience of advocacy, conciliation or mediation
• Experience of responding to complaints.

Skills and Knowledge

• Excellent communication, negotiation and influencing skills
• Ability to liaise effectively with staff and the public at all levels and to deal with difficult situations calmly and confidently
• Understanding of the principles of confidentiality and the importance
• Good working knowledge and experience of database, spreadsheet and word processing computer applications
• To be able to deal efficiently and appropriately, in person, in writing and on the telephone, with a range of people.
• Ability to organise own work effectively without direct support
• Ability to understand when to escalation concerns.
• Experience of using Datix

Equality and Diversity

• Able to demonstrate a commitment and understanding of the importance of treating all individuals with dignity and respect appropriate to their individual needs
• Able to listen and be objective; non-judgmental

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer name

St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Address

St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust