Data on Written Complaints in the NHS, 2022-23

This publication is a count of written complaints made by (or on behalf of) patients, received between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023 in England.

Data are collected via two forms; the KO41a for HCHS, and KO41b for Primary Care (GP and Dental) services. Both are collected annually and relate to the complaints arrangements introduced in April 2009.

KO41a: The KO41a (HCHS) data collection was revised in frequency (from quarterly to annual) for the 2022-23 collection year. This change of frequency does not affect the comparability of the data from 2015-16 onwards. Data prior to this are not considered comparable due to format changes in the return.

KO41b: The KO41b data is made up of three parts:

1. Complaints made to General practices – collected by NHS England and labelled as GP in data tables.
2. Complaints made to Dental practices – collected by the NHS Business Services Authority and labelled as Dental in data tables
3. Complaints made directly to NHS England about primary care services and labelled as NHS England in data tables. This section of the return will be completed by ICB’s for the 2023-24 collection year.

The KO41b data has been collected from individual practices since 2013-14 and response rates for 2022-23 are 89% for GP and 89% for Dental practices which are broadly similar to 2021-22. Caution is advised when considering the timeline of response rates for the KO41b due to the different factors which have affected this return in recent years.

Changes to the report this year

In agreement with stakeholders, and in line with continually reviewing publication content we have reduced the level of commentary and data tables made available in the publication this year, with Key Facts presenting headline findings only.

We have removed data showing complaints per head of population as this was not thought to be useful in considering the scale of complaints. We have also removed tables which detailed the age range and status of complainants, along with the staff groups to which the complaints relate.

However, except for the complaints per head of population data, the full range of data which made up these tables are still made available for analytical purposes in the published CSV files.

Further Information

Guidance and information regarding the KO41a and KO41b complaints collections are available on the NHS England website.

This publication and previous editions are on the NHS England website. To inform and improve future reports contact us with your comments, clearly stating ‘Data on Written Complaints, England’ as the subject heading, via:

Email:  [email protected]  Telephone: 0300 303 5678