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GPs hit back at 'soaring' patient complaint claims
08 Feb 10
GPC chair Dr Laurence Buckman has hit back at claims made in a national newspaper that 'soaring numbers' of patients are complaining about poor GP services.
A report in today's Daily Mail claims complaints against GPs have risen by 10% in just a year, with nearly 40,000 patients complaining in 2008/9.
Much of the rise, the paper says, has occurred since GPs were handed a new contract which relieved them of responsibility for out of hours patient care in 2004, suggesting that ‘this fall in the amount of work they are carrying out has damaged patient care.’
The last set of figures on NHS complaints, published by the NHS Information Centre in November, show a total of 48,597 patients complained about all aspects of general practice health service – including 8,909 complaints regarding poor dental practice – in 2008/9.
39,688, or 82%, of these complaints related to clinical general practice, administration and other miscellaneous GP complaints.
If the ratio of complaints about general and dental practice has remained the same, this would mean a 10% increase on 2007/8 – although a spokesperson for the NHS Information Centre insisted there was ‘absolutely no reason’ to believe this assumption is true.
GPC chair Dr Laurence Buckman said it was important to put the figures in the context of the 300 million annual GP consultations.
He added: ‘It's difficult to draw conclusions about why there's been a rise in complaints in the last ten years. It could be that practices are seeing more patients so, despite an increase in the numbers, the proportion of complaints hasn't actually changed significantly.'
‘Or it could be that there is a greater willingness to complain compared to ten years ago. It's difficult to know what has caused the rise in 2008-9 as for the five years before then complaints had remained pretty static, though it is possible targets have played some part.’
Readers' comments
The Daily Mail is hell bent on attacking GPs. Any visit to their website is littered with abusive garbage about GPs backed by 'distorted' evidence. I have complained to the PCC and so has Dr Buckman but nothing ever happens. I regard the matter as very serious as the Mail is desperately trying to manipulate public opinion against GPs. There are a number of worrying net effects: 1. Low morale and a deterrent to enter medicine or leave it-ref BMJ March 2003 2. A potentially dangerous effect on patients eg failure to consult 'useless' doctors or a breakdown in trust leading to less communication. This issue needs to be addressed by PULSE magazine and addressed by the BMA on a more serious level. The BMA should also look into patient surveys to assess the possible damage from this media crusade.
Laurence Buckman states that the number of complaints in the previous five years before 2008/9 remained pretty static. This would mean the period 1998 - 2003 was relatively unworrying or not being highlighted as a concern regarding number of complaints. Yet the article quoted as highlighting potential low morale and likely disaffection with medicine as a career was published early in 2003. The information for the article would have taken some time to gather and be accepted for publication so it reflects the case of practitioners a fairly long time ago. If there was growing dissatisfaction with practicing then by GPs but seemingly people were relatively stisfied with quality of GP practice, surely GP leaders should be more clued up as to why rather than making guesses?
As a citizen who has always tried to defend GP`s on the Mail website my comments don`t get published, but equally a comment on any contentious article which gets near the truth also doesn`t appear as testified by posters when the site isn`t moderated and most of us know why. Equally, you GP's are unable to be explicit in your own magazine and with patients in the surgery why referrals aren`t sent or why results haven`t come back. I`d judge that alot of complaints arise from this type of fob-off but then if the Mail were to concentrate on the genuine curtailment of GP skills and judgement instead of pretending it`s your hours, then slowly the NWO would unravel as surely as it would if the MSM told the truth about mass immigration resulting in the NHS (and everything else) meltdown. But then you can`t even discuss it between yourselves on here. I subscribed to Pulse recently to defend you guys but you have to be fair and honest with patients in return.