A WORKING group is being set up to improve the response rate to complaints made to Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

A report to the Council of Governors for the trust revealed that it received 76 complaints and 60 concerns in November last year.

The main themes of these were said to be clinical treatment, communication, values and behaviours.

The trust, which runs Basingstoke, Andover and Winchester hospitals, acknowledged 98 per cent of the complaints received.

However, almost half of responses to complaints were not sent within the agreed timeframe of 25 working days.

The trust reported that 77 formal complaints were closed in November, within an average of 35 working days.

A total of 36 of these were not sent within the agreed timeframe.

The report said: “A working group with a range of representatives including patients is being established to review processes and the trust approach and to implement an improvement plan to address responsiveness.”