Health watchdog reveals number of complaints made against Nottingham hospitals

To put them in context, the latest complaints came from 176,796 clinical cases in the borough, and they are keeping with the Greater Manchester trend for 2014-15 of fewer complaints lodged but a larger number proving justified.

This is despite the total number of complaints to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman falling over the year, from 248 to 240.

Overall four complaints were fully or partly upheld, up from three previous year .

In true British fashion, the most common complaint escalated by NHS England patients is the lack of a good enough apology, according to a report released today. Of these one has so far been upheld, eight not upheld and the rest have yet to be resolved.

Elsewhere in the region Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust saw only a slight increase in enquiries from 67 to 73, but nine complaints were upheld compared to just one the year previous.

Karen Beechey, head of PALS and complaints at SWBH said: “We welcome the report and note the number of initial inquiries made to them about our trust has fallen in the last financial year”.

“We are publishing this data to help hospital trusts identify problems and take action to ensure trust in the health care system remains high”.

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 report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman showed that the most common complaints across the country were poor communication, errors in diagnosis and poor treatment. We achieve this through our matrons or through our Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS). “Where we get things wrong, our aim is to always be open, fair and put things right”.

“The PHSO recognise that some NHS organisations have better information for patients about making a complaint and at Tameside the significant improvements we made during 2014/15 have recently been recognised by the CQC who have commented on our outstanding practice in our approach to candour and openness”.

The number of clinical episodes in Leeds, which relates to hospital admissions and outpatient attendances, rose by over 30,000 to 401,206 between 2013-14 and 2014-15.

In 2014-15 the ombudsman received 21,371 enquiries about the NHS, compared to 18,870 the previous year.

“This provides reassurance that the trust is responding to the majority of formal complaints through local resolution”.