❓WHAT HAPPENED: New National Health Service (NHS) England data shows a 6.1 percent increase in written complaints submitted to the socialized health service in 2024/25 compared to the previous year.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: NHS England, NHS patients, and Healthwatch England’s external affairs manager Rebecca Curtayne.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Complaints data pertains to the 2024/25 period across England.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Even when people do make the effort to complain, they’re often met with delays and defensiveness from services—adding frustration to an already difficult experience.” – Rebecca Curtayne
🎯IMPACT: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government has pledged to reform the NHS complaints process, but concerns remain over the clarity and timeline for these reforms.
England’s socialized National Health Service (NHS) saw a marked increase in written complaints in 2025 compared to the previous year. According to new data from NHS England, 256,777 complaints were submitted in 2025 compared to 241,922 complaints in 2024, a 6.1 percent increase.
Hospital and community health services saw 113,780 complaints, a 5.6 percent rise, with a quarter of these being fully upheld. In primary care, 142,997 complaints were submitted, reflecting a 6.6 percent increase, and 30.3 percent of these were fully upheld. Clinical treatment was the largest category of complaints, making up 15 percent in general practice and 28.9 percent in dental practice.
Rebecca Curtayne, external affairs manager at Healthwatch England, commented on the figures, stating: “Fewer than one in 10 people who experienced poor care in the past year told us they made a formal NHS complaint.” She noted a lack of confidence in the NHS’s ability to take meaningful action and fears that speaking up could negatively affect ongoing care as key reasons for this.
Curtayne added, “Even when people do make the effort to complain, they’re often met with delays and defensiveness from services—adding frustration to an already difficult experience.”
The Labour government has pledged to reform the NHS complaints process as part of a 10-year plan, aiming to improve response times to patient safety incidents. However, Curtayne emphasized the need for clarity on what these reforms will involve and when they will be implemented.
The National Pulse reported last year that taxpayer-funded, in-hotel medical treatment for migrants had prolonged National NHS waiting times for native Britons. In Sussex, England, the socialized healthcare provider received a notice period of under four weeks to deliver health services for 1,000 asylum seekers, with this figure later escalating to nearly 3,000 across Brighton, Crawley, Eastbourne, and Hastings. According to the British Medical Association (BMA), approximately 6.3 million patients are on NHS waiting lists, with half waiting over 18 weeks for treatment.
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