Patients at Oxford's Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre say they receive excellent care -- but complaints about waiting times have risen.

A survey of more than 500 recently discharged patients showed patients rated doctors and nurses as helpful, scheduled tests were carried out on time, and wards were clean.

The release of the survey results follows workers' claims that morale is at an all-time low, with high staff vacancy rates, stress from building work, pressure from Government and financial targets, and inattentive senior managers.

But patient complaints rose from 33 between October and December last year, to 46 between January and March this year.

Most grievances were about long treatment and outpatient waiting times, which 14 people complained about, followed by the lack of communication and patient information, which brought nine complaints.

Other concerns included administrative errors, cancelled operations, transport, and staff attitude.

The hospital's chief executive, Ed Macalister-Smith, agreed the hospital had a problem with waiting times, but said the target was that no patients waited longer than 12 months by March next year.

Mr Macalister-Smith said: "Nationally, the biggest challenges are hitting orthopaedic waiting lists.

"There's no going to have to be a very substantial year-on-year rise in investment in orthopaedics to meet these waits, so it's not surprising that our patients write to complain."

All acute NHS trusts used the Patient Prospectus questionnaire between February and March, and more than 500 patients filled in the NOC's survey.

Nearly all the patients who stayed at the hospital between last November and March this year praised the quality of their treatment, and 98 per cent would recommend it to family and friends.

According to 93 per cent, wards were clean, and 88 per cent described toilets and bathrooms as clean during their stay.

Twelve per cent of former patients criticised the food while six per cent complained that tests were delayed.

The main problem at the hospital, according to the survey, was noise during the night, which disturbed 67 per cent of those questioned.