How our national helpline can help you

Our national helpline provides specialist information, advice and signposting to help you make sense of the world of health and social care. We are not medically trained and cannot give medical or legal advice.

Opening hours

Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5pm.

Calls outside these times will be answered as soon as possible if you leave a message with your telephone number.

Call us

Our trained advisers offer free and confidential advice, information and support and are happy to answer your questions. 

Call our helpline on 020 8423 8999.

Live Chat: pilot launch

We are piloting a new Live Chat service, which will provide patients and the public with even easier access to a helpline advisor. Whether you have a query about the complaints process or want to know how to access your medical records, our helpline advisors are just a click away to provide you with the information you need.

To access Live Chat, simply click on the image below to be connected to one of our advisors. The Live Chat service will initially be available on Mondays and Tuesdays from 10am until 12pm.

Email us

You can email us on [email protected]

About the helpline:

You may want to know if you can get a second opinion about your condition, or how to change your GP or your dentist. You may want to make a complaint, find out what is written in your medical records or find out if we have encountered a specific problem before. If we can’t help you, the likelihood is that we will know someone who can.

How long before I get a reply?

If you ring the helpline and speak to an adviser we should be able to respond to your enquiry immediately. If you leave a voicemail or email us, we will aim to get back to you within 5 working days.

If you would like to help spread the word about how our helpline can help others, then you can download and print out our helpline poster here.