Patient Advocacy Service helps more than 6,500 people

The service now has offices in Cork, Galway, and Dublin with 30 staff.

A woman wishing to complain about “very stressful” pregnancy care and a man unhappy with "rude and dismissive" emergency department nurses were among more than 6,500 people helped by the Patient Advocacy Service (PAS).

Now marking its fifth anniversary, the service has seen awareness of the right to complain grow since it supported 65 people during its first year in 2019.

The woman, identified only as Christine, said: “I was very sick throughout the whole pregnancy and didn't feel like anyone in the hospital was listening to me.” 

She was told all her blood tests were missing from the system, for example.

“Because of that, staff hadn't spotted a pregnancy-related condition that I had had the entire pregnancy,” she said.

“It was only spotted a few days before I gave birth. Luckily my child was healthy but the pregnancy was very stressful.” 

PAS helped her get a response to a complaint and meet with hospital staff.

“The hospital apologised and acknowledged what had happened to me. 

"They offered an explanation as to the issues with my bloods and spoke about changes and improvements they had made,” Christine said.

In Fergus’s case, he was brought to hospital by ambulance. 

However, he felt “dismissed” by “rude” nurses who told him they were “very busy”.

Key areas of the emergency department were full. 

He left, but said he “ended up back there in a few days later with the same heart condition”.

Unhappy with an initial response to his complaint, he was helped by PAS to request his medical records and understand them. 

An advocate also attended a meeting with him at the hospital.

“I received a genuine apology,” he said. 

The hospital told me about the changes that had been made in the emergency department as a result of my complaint. I felt listened to.

Georgina Cruise, PAS national manager, said it can help people right through a complaints process with hospitals and nursing homes. 

This can take months or years depending on the incident.

Referring to the growing numbers, she said: “We welcome that increase because it does indicate people are more aware of us, and they have a greater awareness of their own rights.” 

PAS now has offices in Cork, Galway, and Dublin with 30 staff up from seven at the beginning.

“There is a commitment in the current programme for government to extend our service into the mental health arena so there is a commitment there for us to look at that and review it,” she said.

Contact PAS on 0818 293003 or at www.patientadvocacyservice.ie