Manx Care Advice and Liaison Service (MCALS)

• 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.

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

MCALS is open between 9.30am and 4pm 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.

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.

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.

• 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. 

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.

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

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

• MCALS Brochure
• Meet the MCALS team
• Press release – launch of the new MCALS service

Karen Maddox - MCALS Service Lead

Karen has worked for the DHSC and now Manx Care for seven years, and previously worked in Financial Services within the private sector for 16 years. Karen has enjoyed a broad experience, taking on various roles, including some time in Cancer Services and as a Case Manager with the Patient Safety Team. After returning from secondment, where she led the Keyworkers Team within the Travel Notification Service during the pandemic, Karen worked for a brief period with the Service Development Team on the Elective Restoration and Recovery work streams. Karen enjoys assisting patients, carers, service users and third sector partners to ensure they are listened to, and helping to develop learning from feedback received.

Sandra Keene - MCALS Officer

Sandra has twelve years' experience in both finance and health care, the last two years being with the Covid-19 team - 111, vaccines, key workers, contact tracing and the travel notification team. Her passion is to help and guide people to the care they need, and she's an excellent listener.

Rachel Douglas - MCALS Officer

Originally from Liverpool, Rachel lived in New Zealand (working in the finance department of a college) for 15 years, before returning to the UK in 2019.
She moved to the Isle of Man in November 2019 – Rachel fell in love with the Island after spending childhood summers here visiting family.
She started working for Noble's at the beginning of the pandemic, initially on Ward 20, then on the Swabbing team, where she eventually became Manager. She's looking forward to her new role with the MCALS team, listening, assisting and understanding the needs and concerns of patients and service users across the Island.