This site is intended for health professionals only


Written complaints about GPs fell by 5% in 2015

Written complaints about GPs in England fell by 4.7% from 2014-15 to 2015-16, according to a new report published by NHS Digital.

The figures for written complaints received by the NHS about family health services, including general practice and dental services, show there were 82,559 complains in 2015-16 – a fall of 4,070 (4.7%) from 2014-15. 

Around 40% of written complaints in 2015-16 were upheld.

More than a third (38.5%) of complaints were about medical issues and a similar proportion (31.%) were about practice administration.

NHS Digital said in the report that while medical complaints accounted for the bulk of all written complaints by service area, ‘it is unknown if this is good or bad in relation to the other service areas, since we are unable (at present) to provide comparable statistics, such as number of complaints per 100,000 patients treated.’