SWINDON NHS heads have sought to reassure patients that they take complaints seriously.

It comes as new official statistics suggests that complaints about NHS care are up slightly in Swindon – against a regional drop in complaints.

Last year, 23 written complaints were made to the Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) – the NHS body that pays for the healthcare of Swindon and Shrivenham’s 230,000 residents - about the services it commissions.

The figure - from data published by quango NHS Digital - represented a slight rise on 2015/16, when there were 16 complaints.

Regionally, the number of written complaints fell to 5,798 last year – compared to 6,647 the year before.

At the Great Western Hospital, which treats patients from across the region, the number of written complaints dropped slightly – from 664 in 2015/16 to 660 last year.

However, the proportion of complaints that were upheld jumped by eight per cent, to 151 last year.

A spokesman for Great Western Hospital said that this represented “just 0.005 per cent of the two and a half million people we care for every year”.

He added: “While in context this is an incredibly low number, we take each and every complaint incredibly seriously and investigate each one thoroughly to understand what went wrong, what learning can be had and what improvements can be made for future patients.”

Reports presented to the GWH’s board of directors this month suggest that there has been a general rise in the number of low and moderate complaints about the hospital’s “acute” services since the start of the year, from 81 complaints in January to 110 in July.

The board heard that July – the most recent month for which information is available – saw an increase in the number of complaints “due to the cases being more complex and the need for further investigation”.

A GWH spokesman said: “Listening to the people we care for, as well as their families, and acting on that feedback is a massive part of what makes the NHS unique and we would always encourage anyone not entirely satisfied with their experience of our Trust to speak to us at the earliest opportunity.”

Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group said they commission an external NHS organisation to help investigate complaints.

Gill May, executive nurse at Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group said: “We are committed to ensuring that health care providers in Swindon provide the best possible service and care at all times.

“Although the number of complaints remain low, those complaints we have received we have identified an increase in complaints around access, waiting and communication. We take this very seriously and have plans to support our commissioned services to address this.”

Last year, the CCG also received nine compliments about their service providers.

Executive nurse Gill May said: “We welcome any suggestions and feedback about health services and want to resolve any problems that people may experience to help make local healthcare services more effective, safe and efficient.”

Nationally, almost 118,000 written complaints were made about NHS services in England last year.

The NHS trust with the highest number of complaints was North West Ambulance Service, with 2,532 complaints.