Complaints about the NHS in 2011-12
The NHS received 150,859 complaints in 2011-12; a rise of 1.3% on the year before.1
People can come to us if they remain unhappy once the NHS has tried to resolve their complaint. This page gives a snapshot of the volume of complaints we received and how we
dealt with them. In 2011-12, we received 16,337 complaints from the public wanting to complain about the NHS or NHS-funded services. This was an 8% increase on the year before.
We resolved16,333 complaints in the year:
299We gave advice to people on the right organisation to complain to.
10,565We helped people who came to us before complaining to the NHS directly, who hadn’t put their complaint to us in writing (as required by the law) or before the NHS had done all they could to respond. We gave advice on what to do next.
1,070Withdrawn by the complainant
4,399We took a closer look
A closer look
Of the 4,399 complaints we looked at closely:
In 2,400 complaints we found that there was no case for the NHS to answer 
In 950 complaints we found that things had gone wrong, but had been put right by the NHS 
In 649 complaints we put things right quickly without the need for a formal investigation (compared with 487 the year before) 
We agreed to investigate 400 complaints last year (compared with 351 the year before) Investigations:
In 2011/12 we resolved 375 complaints by formal investigation, of which:
Fully upheld
Outcomes
When we found that something had gone wrong, our work led to:
474 Apologies 
358 Wider remedies
333 Compensation payments This includes complaints we resolved without the need for a formal investigation.
1 Data on Written Complaints in the NHS 2011-12, The NHS Information Centre.