Complaints against health trusts in the north have climbed in the last six years, according to new figures.
The latest report by the Department of Health (DoH) has shown that 8,375 complaints were received in the last financial year, up 37% from six years ago.
This means that on average trusts received 92 complaints a week, approximately 13 a day, in the last year.
Over the last six years, all six HSC Trusts reported an increase in the number of complaint issues received.
Almost a third were received by the Belfast Trust, followed by the South Eastern Trust which received 26%.
The Western Trust received 1,313 (15%) of complaints, while the Southern Trust received 1,171 (14%) and the Northern Trust handled 936 (11%).
While the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) handled only 208 (3%) complaints, it has seen the number of complaints skyrocket by over 200% in the last six years.
Earlier this year Michael Bloomfield, chief executive of NIAS told Stormont’s health committee that the service is “operating under extreme pressure most of the time”.
A single communication received by a trust is deemed a complaint, but may include several separate issues.
Accident and Emergency received the highest number of complaints (12%), while quality of treatment and care was the most commonly raised issue (21%).
Over the last six years acute care has seen the largest increase in the number of complaints (22%), while family practitioner services saw complaints drop by 14%.
On average trusts took 33.1 working days to provide a “substantive response to complaints”, compared to a target 20 working days.
Sinn Féin MLA and chair of the Stormont Health Committee, Liz Kimmins, said: “The rise in complaints registered by patients and service users is extremely concerning.
“Our health and social care system is in a state of crisis and our healthcare staff are under enormous pressure.
“It is vitally important that each complaint is thoroughly investigated and that lessons are learned to deliver better services for patients.
“I will be raising this matter with the minister for his urgent attention.”
Health minister Mike Nesbitt said that transparency and accountability are “vitally important cornerstones” of the health service, and that complaints provide “a rich source of information and learning” and opportunity to improve outcomes and experiences.
“Much work has been done throughout HSC Trusts to ensure that we have embedded complaints procedures that are effective, timely and operating robustly in practice in order to identify, address and act on concerns, and to drive improvements,” he added.
“I am encouraged that we are continuing to see compliments far outweigh complaints and that the large majority of compliments were for the high standard of treatment and care provided to patients.
“I want to thank staff across the HSC for their tireless efforts in very challenging circumstances to achieve better outcomes for the patients in their care.”
