KATHERINE BAINBRIDGE
STEPPING Hill Hospital has the highest rate of written complaints per staff member in Greater Manchester, it has been revealed.
The latest figures from the NHS reveal that in 201617 Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, received 678 complaints from patients in writing – which works out as one per every six members of full-time equivalent staff. This means that, while the hospital did not get the highest number of complaints in the region, it had the highest rate per staff member.
However, hospital bosses say this represents less than 0.13 per cent of all its patients.
Second highest was Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, which received 432 complaints – one for every seven staff members – and third was Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, at 470 complaints or one for every nine members of staff.
Specialist cancer hospital The Christie recorded the lowest rate with 72 complaints – one for every 34 members of staff.
Across Greater Manchester as a whole, hospitals had a total of 4,546 complaints made to them, which works out as one for every 11 full-time staff members. Nationally hospitals received 77,009 complaints – one for every 10 staff members.
The trust that received the highest number of complaints overall at 1,026 was Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, but because the trust has a large number of full-time equivalent staff, this works out to a rate of one complaint for every 11 members of staff.
A spokesman for Stockport NHS Foundation Trust said: “If our care ever falls short of our high standards then we want to know about this. For this reason we have a culture of encouraging patients to let us know where there has been problems and where we can make improvements.
“We train our staff to let patients know about our complaints system and everything – from leaflets on our wards, to our website and social media channels – encourages this too.
“We take every complaint very seriously and investigate each case. However, it is worth noting that we see around 580,000 patients every year and the number of written complaints represents less than 0.13 per cent of all our patients.”