MORE than 2000 Scots have sought help from an independent advisory body after being left unhappy with their treatment by the NHS.

Advisers in the Citizens Advice Scotland network have dealt with 2019 complaints from patients who did not wish to complain directly to a health board in the past year.

The news comes after the Sunday Herald yesterday revealed Scotland's health boards received 6596 complaints from patients or their relatives in 2012/13, up 10% on the year before.

The data, obtained under a Freedom of Information request, found there were more than 500 complaints lodged every month.

Citizens Advice Scotland said hundreds more had contacted the charity's free and confidential service.

Its chief executive, Margaret Lynch, said: "The NHS in general delivers an excellent, professional and caring service. But we all know people sometimes have individual experiences which fall below that standard of excellence.

"These could be about anything from clinical treatment to waiting times, poor communications, bad food or the attitude and behaviour of staff. We want to encourage people to feel they have a right to complain about these things, not least so the problems they experienced are not repeated by others."

In the previous year, 2011-12, the number of complaints about NHS treatment to Scottish CAB networks totalled 1962.