Staff attitude under fire as complaints rise at New Cross Hospital

Figures for New Cross Hospital, in Wolverhampton, were revealed as part of a report at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust board meeting on Monday.

They showed the number of complaints had gone up by 64 per cent since February. The highest increase in complaints recorded were made over services in A&E.

But the number of complaints over the period January to March were down from the year before.

The Integrated Quality and Performance Report states: "The volume of complaints has increased by 64 per cent, with the highest volume increase being for A&E services.

"This is a considerable increase on the previous month."

In January, there were 41 recorded complaints, whilst in February there were 25. In March, the figure rose again to 41 complaints.

Overall, since the start of this year, there have been 107 recorded complaints.

There were 116 in the same period last year. Of those complaints recorded in March, a total of 35 were successfully dealt with and closed during the month.

Out of those 35, a total of 11 were closed within 30 working days and 24 took longer than 30 days.

However, the level to which the trust responded to complaints was reduced, from 93 per cent in December, January and February to 83 per cent for March.

Most of the recorded complaints were made over the attitude of staff.

The report continued: "The patient experience team are currently working with the directorate to establish the reasons for the increase and to develop an action plan.

"Upon analysis of the themes for this area, staff attitude remains the highest negative comment."

People making a formal complaint need to make it within 12 months of the incident, or the same period from when they knew of the issue.

The hospital trust, however, can waive the time limit where there are good reasons for the complaint not being made earlier.

Earlier this month it was revealed that more staff were being attacked by patients.

Staff also reported experiencing an increase in bullying from patients, relatives and the public at both New Cross and Cannock Chase Hospitals.

The report showed that the percentage of staff experiencing physical violence from patients, relatives or the public in the last 12 months was up from 10 per cent to 16 per cent. The national average is 13 per cent.

New Cross Hospital was unavailable for comment.