NHS managers have spent almost £6,000 on a patient survey which was ignored by more than two thirds of the people who received it.

Only 250 out of 850 patients - 29 per cent - responded when Oxford City Primary Care Trust randomly sent them copies of a questionnaire about their experiences of the health service.

Staff have admitted they are disappointed by the poor feedback and are urging more patients to send back the survey, which they were obliged by the Department of Health to send out.

Project manager Richard Whittington said: "It is disappointing that the response rate so far has been lower than we had hoped.

"We think it is extremely important to seek patient views and that they take the opportunity to have their say.

"If patients do not respond to questionnaires such as these, it is difficult for us to improve and develop services in the way patients would like."

The Government wants the public to get more involved in health issues and commissioned the firm Patient Dynamics to send out the annual survey on the city PCT's behalf.

It asked patients to give their views about issues like waiting times, information about tests and their experiences of being referred for treatment.

The PCT paid £5,750 for the questionnaire, which had 60 multiple choice questions, including: "In your opinion, how clean is your surgery or health centre?"

Mr Whittington said: "We would appeal to anyone who has received a questionnaire to send in their reply.

"They provide us with essential information about what patients think and gives people the opportunity to have their say on how services might be developed and improved."

Mike Botting, of the Oxfordshire and Area Consortium for Patient and Public Involvement in Health, which oversees patient forums, encouraged people to answer the surveys.

He said: "This is an important issue and we should be encouraging people to take part. Although this is a Department of Health-commissioned survey and we are independent of them, we are all singing from the same song sheet and want to get the patients and public involved in health service processes."