West Midlands Ambulance Service is celebrating on two fronts after new figures revealed that the number of compliments received by the Trust rose in 2015-16 compared to the previous 12 months, whilst the number of complaints fell by 9%.

Across the course of the last year, the Trust received 1,279 contacts of appreciation, up 4% from the 1,229 received in 2014-15. Members of the public used various methods of engagement to pass on their praise including letters, emails, tweets and Facebook posts.

Pleasingly, the number of complaints and concerns fell from 393 in 2014-15 to 358 this time around.

The figures equate to one in every 4487 patients making a formal complaint whilst one in 1256 choose to say thank you for the service they have received.

Trust Chairman, Sir Graham Meldrum, said: “I am delighted to see that the figures are continuing to go the right way and that more and more people are praising the work that we do.

“To see the number of complaints fall by 10% is also an excellent result and we will continue to work hard in order to ensure that number falls further.

"When you consider that we receive almost 3,000 emergency calls and hundreds of non-emergency patient transport service (PTS) calls each day, we should all be very proud as to how few complaints we get.”

Trust Chief Executive Anthony Marsh added: “These numbers are a fantastic result and are just reward for the excellent work of our hard working staff.

“It demonstrates we are providing a very high level of patient care to people in their hour of need.

“Congratulations to all of our staff who work incredibly hard to make these results possible whilst maintaining the highest level of patient care.”

Head of Patient Experience, Marie Tideswell, said: “As a Trust, we know the value of listening to patient feedback. While we believe we have a high level of patient care, we are far from complacent and know that we can always learn more and make further improvements.”