GREAT Western Hospital has been ordered to tighten up its complaints procedure by the NHS watchdog.

Swindon's hospital has been told to speed up its system for dealing with complaints by the Healthcare Commission.

And leaked documents show that a number of serious grievances were lodged against the hospital last year.

They included claims that nursing staff were not good at breaking bad news to relatives and that inexperienced staff caused a family unnecessary distress.

The Healthcare Commission last week awarded the hospital two stars in its annual ratings report, but noted that its complaints mechanism could be better.

The authors of the report stated that response times to complaints needed to be improved.

The confidential documents passed to the Advertiser revealed a number of flaws last year that caused a deceased patient's next of kin to demand an independent investigation.

The complaint led to a GWH apology for under-staffed wards and the way in which staff treated the bereaved family.

GWH spokesman Chris Birdsall said: "An action plan was drawn up in June to speed up responses.

"However, the trust believes that it is the quality of responses as well as the speed which is very important.

"The trust takes complaints very seriously and is keen always to investigate them fully.

"The trust is also very keen to use complaints and other comments to continue to improve services for patients."

Each year the commission awards health bodies stars for reaching specific targets.

Only those that excel in all areas, including infection control and bookkeeping, are awarded all three stars.

In the leaked documents, GWH's director of human resources, Paul Bentley, partly blamed a "disorientated" nurse for the bereaved family's experience.

He wrote: "I recognise that the nurse did not inspire confidence in you and I am sorry for the distress this caused.

"She is a newly-registered nurse who only recently started work at GWH. Saturn Ward is not her normal place of work she was moved to the ward to help because the senior sister took sick leave at short notice.

"The nurse felt very disorientated, and as the remaining staff on the ward were also junior nurses, she did not receive as much supervision and support as she required."

The documents included an apology for the way the bereaved family were greeted by staff. This incident was investigated by the Healthcare Commission although the probe was separate to the star ratings report released last week.

Kevin Shoesmith