Ombudsman reports record number of complaints

A record 4700 complaints about the NHS have been made to Ann Abraham, England's health service ombudsman, between April 2003 and March 2004. This represents an increase of 18% over the previous year, according to the annual report published last week.

Much of this increase reflects a rise in complaints about the ongoing issue of NHS funding for the continuing care of elderly and disabled people. Deficiencies in eligibility criteria and assessments that led to severe hardship in some cases were highlighted …