Report shows rise in Shropshire hospital complaints

Shropshire's two main hospitals have seen an increase in the number of complaints over each of the past five years, new figures show.

But complaints to the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust are still far outnumbered by thank you letters and donations from patients and their families. A report to the trust board reveals the number of complaints relating to the Royal Shrewsbury and Telford's Princess Royal totalled 728 in 2009/10.

This compared to 537 the previous year. In 2005/06 there were 431.

The patient experience report says that last year's rise was partly due to a new requirement on the trust to deal with certain categories of complaint through the formal complaints procedure.

The total number of thank-you letters, gifts and donations totalled 4,092.

In letters, staff were praised for showing the "utmost compassion and understanding" and the hospitals were said to be clean and efficient.

Figures showing the type of complaint received are only available for the last six months of the year but they show most related to clinical care (126), nursing (50) and delays in treatment (91).

Four cases during this period were referred to the parliamentary and health service ombudsman.

The report says: "It is recognised that complaints provide a valuable source of information about the trust's services and patient experience."

Referring to a number of other issues, the report says the trust has set up a working group to look at the quality of care to patients.

It includes outside stakeholders and pilot survey explored matters such as eating and drinking, privacy, personal hygiene, pain and safety. The results were "very encouraging" with the majority of patients giving positive feedback.

And in the annual national inpatients survey, more than 90 per cent of patients across the two hospitals rated their care as good to excellent and 93.2 per cent said that they would recommend the trust to their friends or family.

The report also reveals volunteer work at the trust remains popular.

"There are currently approximately 400 volunteers on both sites and this number continues to increase," says the report.

"This number does not include the WRVS or the League of Friends volunteers."

By Health Correspondent Dave Morris