Doctors, nurses and other hospital workers are being put through customer care courses in a bid to reduce the number of complaints from patients.

Brighton Health Care NHS Trust received 292 formal complaints and negative comments about services between April and June this year.

In comparison, 122 positive comments were sent to the trust in the same period.

A significant number of complaints were about staff attitude towards patients and relatives.

Staff working at the accident and emergency department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital now all go through the training and it is being extended.

The number of complaints and comments have dropped from the previous three months' figure of 315 which the trust says is due to new complaints procedures and policies.

A trust spokesman said the number of complaints was a fraction of the total 86,501 cases dealt with but it still took them seriously.

She said although the number of complaints had dropped, their nature remained constant with staff attitude, clinical treatment, delays and cancellations of out-patient appointments causing concern.

New procedures include extra staff to deal with complaints, visiting A&E to speak to patients who have been waiting a long time and holding training sessions for staff.

A spokesman for health service union Unison said: "All the staff are working under a great deal of pressure and often have to take a great deal of abuse from relatives and visitors when they are doing the best they can in difficult situations."