Publication, Part of Data on Written Complaints in the NHS
Data on Written Complaints in the NHS - 2019-20 Quarter 4 [NS]
National statistics, Accredited official statistics
Introduction
This quarterly collection is a count of written complaints made by or on behalf of patients. These data are for complaints about NHS Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) in England and are collected via the KO41a form.
The NHS complaints procedure is a statutorily based mechanism for dealing with complaints about NHS care and treatment. All NHS organisations in England are required to operate the procedure according to the complaints arrangements introduced in April 2009. Although the 2009 regulations apply to complaints about both adult social care and the NHS, these data only cover NHS complaints.
This is the latest publication of the quarterly NHS written complaints collection. Prior to 2015-16 complaints data were published annually (1997-98 to 2014-15). There is also an annual data collection for Primary Care (GP & Dental) complaints which is collected on the KO41b form, although this is not going ahead in 2019-20 (see further detail below).
Revisions and Issues
There are no revisions this quarter. There are the following two issues to note, which were communicated to users in an update to the publication series page in September:
- Impact of Covid-19
In March 2020 NHS Digital suspended the complaints collections and publications to reduce the burden on NHS organisations during the initial phase of the pandemic. This suspension applied to the secondary care (KO41a) and primary care (KO41b) collections.
KO41a – The collection and publication of these 2019-20 Q4 secondary care (KO41a) data was delayed from June 2020. The 2020-21 Q1 and Q2 data will both be included in a single publication in January 2021.
KO41b – the annual 2019-20 primary care (KO41b) collection should have taken place during May/June 2020 with publication in September 2020. However, following the suspension of the collection, and to reduce burden on primary care organisations, these annual data will not be collected and published for 2019-20.
- KO41a HCHS Consultation
To ensure that this collection is delivering the maximum amount of value for the minimum burden on NHS organisations, NHS Digital aim to review and consult on both of the complaints collections and publications during 2021.
This will assess the use, data quality, availability of data sources and resources needed to produce the publications. There is potential for the publications to be revised, reduced in frequency, or discontinued.
Further Information
NHS Digital welcomes comments on this publication to inform future reports. Please contact us with comments and suggestions stating ‘Data on Written Complaints’ as the subject via:
Email: [email protected] Tel: 0300 303 5678
Previous editions of the publication can be found on the NHS Digital website
Last edited: 13 January 2021 1:36 pm