By Gillian Ellison

Published at 11:12, Thursday, 17 May 2012

THERE has been an increase in the number of complaints to the health trust which runs West Cumberland Hospital and the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle.

nursing: Chris Platton

A meeting of the Trust board in Whitehaven on Tuesday heard that there had been an increase in complaints over 2011/12 – of which there were 41 in March alone.

The board was told that there has been an increase in complaints nationally across the NHS.

During March there were 26 complaints relating to the Carlisle hospital and 15 at Whitehaven.

Chris Platton, trust nursing director, said they take all complaints very seriously; they are monitored weekly and they look at trends to ensure lessons are learned.

There was a larger number of complaints at the Carlisle hospital in surgery (13) compared to Whitehaven (3) but this was said to be because there was more surgery undertaken at the Cumberland Infirmary.

Ramona Duguid, company secretary, said in general the complaints ranged from data loss to a number relating to the eye service (ophthalmology) and also bed availability.

Corinne Siddall, operations director, said they reflected the operational difficulties the trust encountered over March.

The trust board heard that a plan in place to reduce the number of patients waiting over 50 weeks for eye treatment was taking effect. It had been reduced from 79 patients originally waiting to seven. She said it was being closely monitored.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk