A HEALTH watchdog has received scores of complaints about hospital services during the past 18 months.

A report published today by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman reveals the service received 290 enquiries from people angry about the care and treatment they or a relative received.

Concerns raised included poor communication, delays, misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose and poor treatment.

Other reasons for complaints during the period, which ran from April 2013 to September this year, included staff attitude, no apology when things went wrong and unnecessary delay in treatment.

The report outlines how many complaints the Ombudsman has investigated for each of England's 156 hospital trusts and the decisions made on these complaints, in 2013/14 and the first half of this financial year.

It showed there were 117 complaints made about Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, 29 of which were accepted for investigation. Six complaints were fully or partially upheld.

There were 96 complaints made against Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, with 13 accepted for further investigation but only two were fully or partly upheld.

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust had 77 complaints, of which 24 were investigated further. Ten were fully or partly upheld.

Numbers have risen slightly compared with the year before but this is partly because of changes in the criteria used by the ombudsman to accept complaints.

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals said: “This report tells us that 93% of the people who make complaints about our services are satisfied with the way we investigate their complaint and respond to their concerns.”

Ombudsman Julie Mellor said: “We are publishing this data today because every complaint presents an opportunity to improve services.”