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Manx Care Advice and Liaison Service (MCALS)

Every day, hundreds of people access health and social care services across the Isle of Man either directly as a patient or service user, or indirectly as a relative or carer. They may have had a positive experience and want to share this feedback with Manx Care, but equally they may have concerns or queries, or feel that there are things the organisation could be doing better.

Similarly, members of the community may require advice and support from some of the professionals working within the Island's health and social care service, but aren't sure where to start looking for information or accessing what they need.

This is where the Manx Care Advice and Liaison Service (MCALS) comes in.

MCALS is a confidential service operated by Manx Care that's dedicated to driving positive change across the health and social care system by listening to feedback and acting on it. The service aims to improve patient and service user experiences by helping to sort problems out quickly, providing advice and pointing people in the right direction to get the help they need.

What can MCALS help people with?

  • Providing information or confidential advice about Manx Care, our services and our strategic partners
  • Signposting you to the department or person you need to speak to
  • Highlighting the services we offer
  • Helping to clarify any questions you have about current or planned care or treatment
  • Helping you to solve any health-related enquiries or problems you may have
  • Listening to your feedback about our services and how you think we could improve them
  • Passing your positive feedback on to our colleagues
  • Being a friendly voice at the end of the phone (or email) if you know you need to speak to someone, but you’re not sure who
  • Scenarios where you want to tell us about a concern, but don’t want to make a complaint
  • Highlighting how you can make a formal complaint to Manx Care if required

You can ask a carer, relative or friend to speak to MCALS on your behalf if you’d prefer. If you’re actively receiving treatment and have an immediate query or concern, you should direct this to your doctor, nurse or senior member of your Ward team in the first instance. MCALS can support you if they’re not able to resolve your query quickly.

How to contact MCALS

There are various ways that you can get in touch with the MCALS team:

Opening hours

MCALS is open between 10am and 3pm every weekday. The service is closed at weekends and on Isle of Man Public Holidays.

If a message is left on the answer-machine, a member of the team will aim to return the call during the next working day.

What’s not covered by MCALS?

MCALS cannot help people with the provision of medical advice or diagnosis, counselling, advocacy or formal complaint resolution. Any media enquiries should be directed to Manx Care's Corporate Communications Team.

If an individual contacts MCALS, will it affect their care or treatment?

No. Please rest assured that speaking to MCALS or raising a concern with the service will not have an adverse impact on the care being provided to any individual.

How will MCALS deal with a query?

  • A query is received either via phone or email
  • The MCALS Officer will:
    • Deal with the query straight away, if they can
    • Go away and speak with the correct person, team or department to resolve the query
  • MCALS will get back in touch with the person who’s contacted them to discuss the query again and hopefully provide a resolution
  • If MCALS cannot deal with a query, an individual isn’t happy with the response provided and wants to speak to someone else about it, or if an individual wants to make a formal complaint, the MCALS Officer will direct them towards the formal Complaints process. 

Confidentiality

Anything discussed with MCALS is treated in confidence, unless the team believes that an individual may be at significant risk. In this case, they will escalate their concerns to the most appropriate authority.

The MCALS team will only take steps to support someone with their consent, or a patient or service user's consent if someone is acting on their behalf.

How long it will take for MCALS to respond to a query

MCALS will aim to respond within seven working days of receiving an enquiry.

How to use the Sign Language Interpreters service to contact MCALS

We are delighted to enable British Sign Language users to contact us using a Sign Language interpreter, through the InterpretersLive! service, provided by Sign Solutions.

Using an ipad, tablet, Laptop (with video capabilities) or a smart phone, you can contact MCALS using the video interpreters service by either;

  • Downloading the free Starleaf App, or;
  • Visiting the Starleaf website via an internet browser

These BSL video calls are a 3 way conversation where you sign to the interpreter and they will then speak with the MCALs staff and vice versa

The interpreter will introduce themselves and guide you through the process. The system is fully compliant with all relevant data protection, GDPR and confidentiality laws so you can still talk openly though it is via an interpreter

If you are uncomfortable with this system MCALS can still be contacted via email on MCALS@gov.im

Additional information about MCALS

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