NEW figures released this week show many complaints about Somerset health trusts were received by a national watchdog.

Health Service Ombudsman Ann Abraham published the first in an annual series of reports which covers the first full year of a new complaint handling system for the NHS.

In the report, Ms Abraham warns that the NHS is missing a rich source of free and readily available information about patients by failing to listen and learn from complaints.

She says poor complaint handling can make a difficult situation worse for patients and their families.

In Somerset, the figures for Somerset PCT, now known as NHS Somerset show 45 complaints were received and of those, two were resolved through intervention and two were accepted for investigation.

The numbers for Taunton and Somerset NHS Trust, which runs Musgrove Park Hospital, show 30 complaints were received with one resolved through intervention and one accepted for investigation.

Hospital spokesman Mark Wall said: “We take all complaints very seriously and have a team who meet with people and investigate. At the end of the process, people are given information about the ombudsman.

“The report appears to suggest that only two cases were taken forward by the ombudsman.”

A spokesman for NHS Somerset said: “Some of the 45 complaints will have been made by patients about individual GPs, dentists, pharmacists and opticians or NHS Hospital Trusts.

“NHS Somerset doesn’t see complaints as a burden, rather they are an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and evaluate our performance.

“Last year, NHS Somerset had just 8 formal complaints.”

None of the 13 complaints about Somerset Partnership NHS Trust were taken up by ombudsman.