A PATIENT was sent home from a hospital accident and emergency department with a needle still in his arm.

The incident was among 134 formal complaints received about care and treatment provided by Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust between October and December.

The trust said in this case the department’s matron highlighted to all staff the importance of removing cannulas from patients and always using the discharge checklist.

Other cases included a complaint about poor nursing care which led to the nurse involved shadowing junior sisters and learn from their practice and attitude.

A report to the trust board said: “The most common reason that patients cite formal complaints is due to clinical treatment.

“When this subject is looked at in more detail it relates to the co-ordination of medical treatment and this is the causal factor of formal complaints in surgery, medicine and women and children’s divisions.

“The specialties that receive the most complaints have been identified within the divisions so that focussed improvement work can be undertaken.”

Other complaints handled by the trust’s patient advice and liaison service included concerns about a missed fracture and inadequate follow-up treatment.

The fracture should have been picked up earlier and the failure to do so had a negative impact on the patient.

The incident led to extra training being given for the staff involved.

In another case a patient was left waiting with an ambulance crew for four hours outside her home before having to be returned to hospital.

This was because she had been discharged from accident and emergency before any contact had been made with her husband.

An additional check has now been added to the trust’s discharge check list to ensure family are aware a patient is going home.

Extra contact details are also now taken where appropriate.

The trust is now trialling a new system in which it sends out both email and text reminders for appointments.

It follows concerns raised about appointments being rescheduled and eventually cancelled at short notice.

Over the same period of time a total of 1,196 concerns or informal complaints were raised by patients and relatives using the trust’s services.

However, 1,134 positive comments were received by the trust during the three months.

These were mostly related to high standards of care as well as staff being kind, friendly, caring and professional.

The trust runs hospitals in Worthing, Chichester and Shoreham.