Patient advice and complaints (PACS)

Find out how to how to complain. If you would like to contact us, you can email advice.complaints@bdct.nhs.uk or contact us by phone (01274 251440).

If you have any concerns, complaints or compliments about services that are not provided by our Trust, please use the following contact details:

• Bradford Royal Infirmary or  St Luke’s Hospital ( Bradford Teaching Hospital’s Foundation Trust Patient Experience Team) – telephone 01274 364810; email patient.experience@bthft.nhs.uk
• Your GP practice – you can speak to the Practice Manager, or you can contact the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (WYICB) – telephone: 01924 552150, email for concerns/complaints is wyicb.pals@nhs.net; the email for formal complaints is wyicb.pccomplaints@nhs.net
• Airedale General Hospital (PALS and complaints) – telephone 01535 294019; email anhsft.patientadvice@nhs.net

Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust (BDCFT) welcomes feedback and complaints and we want to understand your experience in your own words, to allow us to continually improve and develop our services.

When writing a complaint we want to understand:

• What happened?
• When and where did it happen?
• Who was involved?
• How did it affect you or your family?
• What does a resolution or outcome look like?

Using AI for complaints

We recognise the increasing number of people choosing to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT, Copilot or other online writing assistants, when preparing a complaint. We understand these tools can help you to organise your thoughts, improve spelling and grammar, and provide a structure for writing concerns and complaints. However, complaints that are clear, concise and based on the your own experience are often easier to investigate and resolve effectively. Our focus is on understanding what happened from your perspective; a simple account of your experience is often more helpful than a detailed document containing legal, regulatory or clinical terminology.

When concerns are described in your own words, it is often easier for our team to understand the key issues and identify the most appropriate way to investigate and respond.

How AI-generated complaints can make the process more difficult

AI tools generate content based on patterns in data and do not have access to the specific facts of your case. As a result, they can sometimes:

• Include inaccurate or misleading information.
• Refer to outdated guidance, policies or standards.
• Misinterpret NHS policies, professional regulations or legal requirements.
• Suggest that certain standards have been breached when this may not be the case.
• Present assumptions or opinions as facts.
• Attribute actions, decisions or responsibilities incorrectly.

This will most likely delay our review and mean we need to further clarify the specific details and points of complaint before we can properly consider your complaint.

Our recommendation

We want to ensure any complaint investigation remains focused on the matters that are most important to you and to provide a meaningful, timely response.

We always recommend writing a straightforward description of what happened, how it affected you and what outcome you are seeking. This is the best way we can understand your concerns and investigate them as efficiently as possible.

Whilst we will not reject a complaint because it is complex or because AI has been used, we do need to ensure proportionality when investigating complaints and consider additional time to try and understand your concerns when AI tools are used. By keeping your complaint focused on the issues that matter most to you, you can help us investigate and respond more effectively.

Please be aware that some AI tools may store or use confidential information entered into them and this may not be secure.

For further guidance on using AI to support a complaint, you may find this resource from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman helpful: Using AI tools to help your complaint.

Cloverleaf Advocacy is an Independent Complaints Advocacy Service, which provides practical support and information to people who may wish to make a complaint about an NHS or NHS funded service. Their Advocates are specially trained to help people through the NHS complaints process. People can have help from an advocate at any point in the complaints process.

Contact Cloverleaf Advocacy  https://cloverleaf-advocacy.co.uk/

Telephone 0300 012 4212 or email: NHScomplaints@cloverleaf-advocacy.co.uk

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