FEWER people complained about services at Burnley General Hospital during the last 12 months than at any time in the last five years, Health Trust directors were told.

Greater public awareness of the Patients' Charter was expected to result in a rise in complaints, but this failed to materialise.

Latest figures show the trust received a total of 173 written complaints from April 1, 2002 to March 31, 2003, compared with 251 in the previous 12 month period.

The number of complaints has dropped every year in the last five years from 315 in 1997/98 and is now well below the national average.

This year has also seen a dramatic reduction in the number of complaints about communication to patients from 37 in 2001/02 to just 2 in 2002/03.

Complaints about staff attitude also fell from 37 to 20 in the same period.

The figures were presented to a meeting of the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust Board at Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn.

The report also sets out Burnley's performance against the key NHS Plan Access Targets which include inpatient and day case waiting times, outpatient waiting times, A&E performance, cancer two-week wait performance and booked admissions for day case surgery.