Complaints received by HSC Trusts, Board and family practitioner services in Northern Ireland 2014-15

Date published: 22 July 2015

The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety today published statistics 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)

Number of complaint issues received by HSC Trusts

Notes to editors: 

1. The information detailed in this publication is derived from the Departmental CH8 - Revised statistical return provided by the six HSC Trusts including the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service. It also includes information on HSC Board and FPS complaints derived from the HSC Board CHB statistical return.

2. This statistical bulletin is the first to be based on information collected from the CH8 Revised return, which not only collects information previously collected on the POC and subject of the complaint issue in the aggregate CH8 return, but also includes information on: complaint issues received by specialty, age of the patient / client, sex of the patient / client, relationship of the complainant to the patient / client, the method of complaint and the average number of working days to provide a substantive response to a complaint.

3. All information has been validated with HSC Trusts and Board, and incorporates all returns and amendments received up to 17 July 2015.

Further information on Complaint Issue statistics is available from:

Hospital Information Branch
Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety
Annexe 2, Castle Buildings
Stormont, BT4 3SQ

Tel: 028 90 520064
Fax: 028 90 523288
Email: hib.questions@dhsspsni.gov.uk

4. Media queries to DHSSPS Information Office on 02890 520 579, or out of hours contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 076 9971 5440 and your call will be returned. 

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