New 'superhospital' in top five for complaints
PORTSMOUTH'S hospitals are the fourth most complained-about in the country, a new report has revealed.
A total of 1,237 written complaints were sent to Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust between April 2009 and March 2010, according to research by the NHS Information Centre.
The trust, which runs Queen Alexandra Hospital and services at St Mary's and Gosport War Memorial hospitals, received the highest number of complaints in the south central region – 448 more than Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust which came second.
And only eight trusts across the whole of the country topped 1,000 complaints.
Hospital bosses have said there was a rise in complaints after the superhospital opened earlier just over a year ago, but insist the number of complaints is small in comparison to the number of patients they treat.
Julie Dawes, director of nursing, said: "I was disappointed to see the number of complaints. Complaints are extremely important and we take them very seriously.
"But we have to look at it in the context of our overall workload. We're a large hospital and see a lot of patients.
"We have 100,000 people through the emergency department a year alone. So as a proportion of the number of patients we have, the number of complaints is actually quite small."
She added: "We do believe we provide a high quality of care to patients and we get lots of plaudits. In fact many, many more plaudits are received than complaints."
The hospital trust says complaints can range from there not being a hand gel dispenser at an entrance, right through to more serious issues.
But they say the bulk of complaints are about the procedure of being admitted and discharged from the hospital, not about the care itself.
Despite the new superhospital opening in June last year, promising better care and better services, the trust in fact received more complaints than in the previous year, 2008/09, when there were 1,119 written complaints.
The rise in complaints after the superhospital – which takes the majority of patients admitted from Hayling and Lagnstone – opened, were said to be mainly about people not being able to find their way around.
Portsmouth councillor Leo Madden, in charge of the city's health and social care said the trust needs to take on board the complaints and make improvements.
He said: "There are a lot of positive things said about Queen Alexandra Hospital, but complaints have got to be taken seriously.
"They should be using this as a basis for improvement."
The three trusts to receive more than Portsmouth were North Staffordshire Hospital NHS Trust (1,824), Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (1,340) and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (1,397).
Portsmouth City Teaching PCT, which provides mental health and community services, had 387 complaints, and NHS Hampshire – the regional health authority - had 260.
INFORMATION CENTRAL
The NHS complaints report is an annual report that has been released by the NHS Information Centre since 1997.
The NHS Information Centre is England's central source of health and social care information.
It collates information and statistics from NHS trusts all over the country and then releases regular reports on topics and issues such as health and lifestyles, hospital care, mental health care, screening and the NHS workforce.
For more information visit www.ic.nhs.uk
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Sunday 05 February 2012
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