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 our national helpline can help you

Our helpline provides specialist information and guidance to help you make sense of the world of health and social care.

Our helpline covers all of health and social care, and we would like to hear your experiences in the NHS and social care systems. Whether your experience has been positive or one that could have been better, we’d like to hear more and see what we can do to help. Our partnership with the Care Quality Commission means when you call our helpline or email us, it can make a real difference.

Please note our staff are not medically trained and cannot give medical or legal advice.

We understand that many people contacting us might be experiencing difficult circumstances and because of that might be angry.  Our team want to help you.  However, we have a duty of care to our staff and volunteers to provide them with a healthy and supportive workplace.

To support our team we operate a zero-tolerance policy towards aggressive and abusive behaviour. This includes any abusive or threatening comments, bad language or aggressive gestures.  Should these behaviours present then the team will ask the caller to stop and if it persists, they will terminate the call and raise an internal incident through our processes.

Opening hours

Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5pm.

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

Our trained advisers provide free and confidential information and guidance and are happy to answer your questions. 

You can call our helpline on 0800 345 7115 (freephone number).

Email us

If you want to get in touch outside the hours that the helpline is staffed, you can send us an email instead and our friendly staff will get back to you as soon as possible. Send your emails to: [email protected] Please do not send attachments with your email as these will not be read due to security measures.

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, please download and print our poster here 

Helplines Partnership

The Patients Association is a member of Helplines Partnership, the membership body for organisations that provide helpline services. The Partnership provides various services for helplines including training and a quality standard. This benefits our specialist helpline advisers in providing the best possible service to patients getting in touch with us.

As a registered charity, the Patients Association is dependent upon donations and sponsorship to be able to continue operating the helpline. You can see a full list of our supporters here.

Helpline Sponsors

"Leigh Day is proud to sponsor The Patients Association’s national helpline. The helpline provides valuable information on the UK’s health and social care system and aims to enable every patient to get the support they need."