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Poor communication and treatment top reasons for NHS complaints

The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has seen a drop in the number of complaints made about it to the Ombudsman, placing it now in third position, rather than leading the scoreboard.

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In a statement United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust told the radio station they have made huge progress with how they deal with complaints but more can still be done.

Ombudsman Julie Mellor said: “We are publishing this data to help trusts identify problems and take action to ensure trust in the system remains high”.

Rachael Maskell, Labour MP for York Central and former head of health at trade union Unite, claims Yorkshire’s rocketing annual bill for agency staff, which hit £113million a year ago , is partly to blame.

“I strongly believe that NHS leaders should welcome feedback from patients and recognise the opportunities that good complaint handling offers to improve the services they provide”.

Poor communication, treatment and errors in diagnosis have once again topped the list of causes of hospital complaints investigated by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

“In a small proportion of cases we are unable to resolve the complainant’s concerns and we encourage them to request an independent review from the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (PHSO)”.

In 2014-15, the service received 21,371 enquiries about the NHS, compared to 18,870 in 2013-14.

In all, 84 complaints were received about the trust – down from 112 – with 11 investigated.

Rob Dearden, director of nursing at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust said: “The Trust takes complaints extremely seriously and carries out detailed investigations into each one”.

The criticism came as part of a new report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which shows that it received 8,853 enquiries relating to hospital trust complaints past year – an increase of around 700 when compared to 2013-14.

Thirty-nine complaints were made about North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust, which runs the Cumberland Infirmary and West Cumberland Hospital. There were seven investigations that were fully or partly upheld, up from two.

A Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said it welcomed comments from patients as it helped to improve services. Within that the number of enquiries about hospital trust complaints rose by nearly 700 to 8,853.

One was rejected and the remainder were still under investigation at the end of the period in question. Eight were investigated and two were upheld.

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“We are sorry that these patients did not receive the standards of care we aim to provide and that we were unable to respond to their complaints satisfactorily in the first instance”.

The BBC chose not to report that Hinchingbrooke in Cambridgeshire the first privately-run NHS hospital had received the fewest number of complaints yesterday