Health Department Releases Complaint Stats For Northern Ireland

Complaints received by HSC Trusts, Board and Family Practitioner Services in Northern Ireland (2014/15) have been evaluated in a report released by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety today.

Statistics are available on complaint issues received by the six Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts, the HSC Board and Family Practitioner Services within Northern Ireland for the year ending 31 March 2015.

This statistical release presents information on complaint issues received by HSC Trusts in Northern Ireland. It details the number of HSC Trust complaint issues received, by the programme of care, category, subject, specialty of the complaint and the time taken to provide a substantive response.

Key Points

The key findings presented in the statistics release are listed below.

Latest Year (2014/15):

*  During 2014/15, HSC Trusts received 5,154 complaints relating to 7,015 complaint issues (Tables 1 & 5, Figure 1).

*  Three fifths (4,189, 59.7%), of complaint issues received during 2014/15 related to the Acute POC (Tables 2 & 3, Figure 3).

*  During 2014/15, one in 10 (743, 10.6%) complaint issues received by HSC Trusts related to the ‘Accident & Emergency’ specialty (Appendix 4).

*  Of the 5,154 complaints received in 2014/15, the median age of the patient/client was 49.4 years (Figure 7).

Last Five Years (2010/11 – 2014/15):

*  On average HSC Trusts took 25.2 working days to provide a substantive response to complaints received in 2014/15 (Table 5, Figure 9).

*  Over the last five years, the number of complaint issues received by HSC Trusts has increased by 1,962 (38.8%), from 5,053 in 2010/11 to 7,015 in 2014/15 (Table 1, Figure 1).

*  Between 2010/11 and 2014/15, the number of complaint issues received relating to the Acute POC has increased by 1,167 (38.6%), from 3,022 to 4,189 (Table 2).

*  Since 2010/11, the number of complaint issues received has increased in all six HSC Trusts, with Belfast HSC Trust reporting the most notable increase (917, 49.4%), from 1,855 to 2,772 in 2014/15 (Table 1, Figure 1).

*  Almost three in ten (29.5%) complaint issues received during each of the last five years related to the ‘Diagnosis/Operation/Treatment’ category (Appendix 2).

The information release is published on the Departmental website: