A private company at the centre of a raft of complaints in Bradford for the quality of the out-of-hours care it gives to NHS patients has been criticised by the Health Service Ombudsman.

Primecare is the subject of three complaints for its out-of-hours care in the report, which deals with investigations carried out between October 2003 and 2004.

Ann Abrahams, the Health Service Ombudsman, says in her report: "I have seen a number of serious cases involving GP deputising services.

"Quality of care, communication with patients and record-keeping in these cases is a real cause for concern."

The selected cases published by the Ombudsman are intended to highlight individual examples of what went wrong and what should be done to prevent mistakes happening again.

They are taken from a range of healthcare settings and across England. They include the case of a 32-year-old man who died of meningococcal septicaemia after being seen by a Primecare GP who gave no treatment and failed to wait with the man for an ambulance to arrive.

The ombudsman said the GP failed in his duty of care and must now receive extra training.

Other cases relate to criticism of Primecare's handling of complaints and inadequate clinical management.

The Ombudsman is currently investigating the case of Jean Pearson, of Baildon, who claims she was driven to the brink of suicide by a GP working for Primecare. A report is expected in September. The company has also been criticised locally for the care of terminally ill patients and delays in responding to calls.

In response to the Ombudsman's report Primecare, which provides out-of-hours care for residents within Bradford City Primary Care Trust and Bradford South and West Primary Care Trust, said: "Clearly we have responded in detail to the specific cases during the course of the Ombudsman's investigations and have already put in place changes to procedures and services in line with the findings of these cases.

"These cases occurred some time ago and it is important to note that much has changed in out-of-hours care over the last 12 to 18 months."

Primecare says it has improved complaints procedures and keeps significant patient records electronically.

A spokesman for Bradford City Teaching and South & West PCTs said: "GP practices within City and South & West continue to commission out-of-hours services through Primecare.

"Any service issues raised in the past have been addressed between Primecare, the GP practices and the PCTs as part of their regular dialogue."