Patient Advice and Liaison Services: strengthening the voices of individual service users in health-care organizations.
OBJECTIVE
To explore the roles of Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) in their interactions with service users.


BACKGROUND
Every National Health Service health-care provider in England now has a PALS, which provides service users with information and help in resolving concerns and dissatisfactions with health care.


METHODS
Longitudinal qualitative study, 2002-4. This paper draws on data from 27 semi-structured interviews.


METHODS
PALS personnel working in six case study PALS in London.


RESULTS
PALS personnel adopt seven roles in order to support their clients in sorting out problems with health care: information provider; listener; messenger (passing on information from service users to staff); go-between (passing information forward and back); supporter (helping service users to present their own views); mediator (when two or more parties are in dispute); resource mobilizer (when the support of senior staff or other agencies is necessary to resolve a problem).


CONCLUSIONS
Though these are not new functions, PALS is a universal service which is better placed than front-line health-care staff to offer such support, and increases choice for service users looking for sources of information and advice.
Abbott
Stephen
S
Public Health and Primary Care Unit, St Bartholomew School of Nursing and Midwifery, City University Institute of Health Sciences, London, UK. s.j.abbott@city.ac.uk
Meyer
Julienne
J
Bentley
Jane
J
Lanceley
Anne
A