THE number of complaints made about care at Worcestershire Royal Hospital increased slightly between April 2014 and March this year in comparison with the previous 12 months.

Figures show 344 complaints were made at the hospital during the 12 month period, compared with 331 the previous year. But this is significantly down from the year before, when 407 complaints were received.

But overall complaints figures have dropped across Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, which runs the Royal as well as Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital, with 566 made between March 2014 and April this year, down from 599 in the previous year.

Complaints are also down from a proportional standpoint, with 19.90 recorded made per 10,000 ‘bed days’ in the past year, compared with 21 in the previous 12 months.

But the trust is failing to meet its target of responding to all complaints within agreed timescales – usually 25 working days – with only 66 per cent of concerns responded to in time. This is a slight improvement on the previous year when the target was met in 63 per cent of cases.

Although complaints around attitude of staff and communication were up, other categories were down.

The overwhelming majority of complaints made in the past year were those which require some investigation but are not classed as serious incidents and the amount made by white British patients and families far outstripped other ethnicities.

Of the 566 complaints made in the past year, 33 were not upheld, while the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman upheld one, partially upheld another and did not uphold two more.

The trust has vowed to ensure patients know how to complain and feel able to do so and to ensure all complaints are fully addressed in a timely manner.

Although the trust has reported receiving “many” compliments and letters of thanks, numbers of these are not recorded.