Grievances in patient health services soar
They show that more grievances poured in between April and September than for the whole of the previous year.
Two of them, relating to misdiagnosis of an illness and staff attitude from a GP surgery, have been escalated to the Health Service Ombudsman after they could not be resolved locally.
And following an investigation by a panel in June, a further complaint about another misdiagnosis by a family doctor has been referred to the medical disciplinary body, the General Medical Council.
The statistics have been issued by NHS North Staffordshire, which covers patients living in Newcastle and the Staffordshire Moorlands.
Now training is to be stepped up among its 2,000-plus health workers over how to handle complaints.
A total of 28 were made over six months but the primary care trust is still looking into 11 more long-standing cases.
Eleven of the latest refer to treatment at nine GP practices and two are about alleged misdiagnosis at the Basford out-of-hours medical service.
Three are about West Midlands Ambulance Service, which the PCT commissions, with one registered about the lack of information provided by Bradwell Hospital.
The PCT is one of only a handful in the country refusing to fund fertility treatment and one childless couple made a complaint about that, while two more patients protested when their requests for drugs to be funded were turned down.
And an older complaint about the trust's controversial policy of sending overweight patients outside the area for stomach reduction surgery is still under investigation.
One grievance was about staff attitude and cancellation of appointments at a dental surgery which has not been identified.
Chris and Jenny Bailey complained to the General Medical Council this summer after two doctors failed to diagnose their 11-year-old daughter's brain tumour for four months.
Niamh nearly went blind because the tumour, which was 32mm by 25mm, was pressing on her optical nerve and she had to start chemotherapy immediately to preserve her sight.
Mrs Bailey, aged 41, of Dimsdale Parade West, Wolstanton, said: "We wanted to complain to make sure the same mistake never happened again.
"We've now had an apology but we feel she was let down by the doctors who failed to diagnose her."
PCT business manager Cathy Haigh said: "There has been a significant increase in complaints received this year.
"A contributory factor is a change in regulations as the complainant now has the option of coming to the commissioner as well as the service provider.
"Although complaints continue to be part of the new staff induction day, a new service training package incorporating complaints will be devised and delivered to all staff next year."
Dr Prasad Rao, pictured, chairman of North Staffordshire Urgent Care which runs the out-of-hours service, said: "We see complaints as an opportunity to learn and put things right if they have gone wrong.
"We are not just commissioned by NHS North Staffordshire and our total complaints are not rising. We received 13 last year, but that is out of 86,000 patients over the 12 months."
A report compiled for the PCT's directors names the GP surgeries subject to complaints as: Kidsgrove medical centre; Lyme Valley practice, Newcastle; Milehouse primary care centre; Rupert Street surgery, Biddulph; both Wolstanton medical centre and Village surgery; the Surgery, Chesterton; Well Street Medical Centre, Biddulph; and the Tardis surgery, Cheadle.
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