COMPLAINTS to the Health Service Ombudsman alleging poor treatment at Dudley hospitals have risen by a fifth - while in neighbouring Sandwell and West Birmingham they went down substantially.

Nationally, complaints to the ombudsman about the NHS went up from 18,870 to 21,371 in 2014-15, of which 8,853 were about acute hospital trusts.

And the top three reasons for groans about hospitals were poor communications, errors in diagnosis and poor treatment.

A total of 37 complaints against The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Russells Hall Hospital and the Corbett and Guest outpatient centres, were referred to the ombudsman in 2014-15, compared to 31 the year before.

The ombudsman last year accepted 10 complaints for further investigation and fully or partly upheld three complaints of poor service, which is the same number as during 2013-14.

The findings are set against a background of the Dudley hospitals carrying out nearly 196,000 "clinical episodes" in 2014-15, which include outpatient appointments, surgery and emergency admissions.

Paula Clark, chief executive of the Dudley Group, said the trust used all feedback from patients, including complaints, to learn lessons and make improvements and always complied with recommendations from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

"We always do our best to resolve complaints from patients to learn lessons from their experiences," she added.

"Patients who lodge complaints receive detailed written responses and are also offered local resolution meetings in an attempt to resolve any issues.

"Occasionally, if patients are unhappy with how we have dealt with their complaint, they may choose to contact the ombudsman, who can take on the complaint on their behalf.

"When a case is partly or fully upheld by the ombudsman, the Trust receives a report which includes a summary of the patient's concerns, what we have done in response and any recommendations the ombudsman would like us to action."

Sixty-seven complaints against Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust were received by the ombudsman in 2014-15, compared with 90 the previous year.

Thirteen complaints were accepted for further investigation during last year - one more than in 2013-14.

Seven were fully or partly upheld by the ombudsman, compared with just two in 2013-14.

The Sandwell and West Birmingham trust carried out a total of nearly 267,000 treatments during last year.