According to a recent story, complaints against basic NHS services such as GPs and dentists have risen quite significantly since the pandemic.
New figures show that complaints about healthcare services in Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes have been on the rise, as has the national average which has climbed by 35% since the 2018-2019 period.
This increase has been driven mainly by a 44% increase in the number of complaints flagged regarding GPs.
NHS England figures reportedly show that 2,199 complaints in total were made against GPs, dentists and primary care services in NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes area in the 2022-2023 period. This is a climb from 1,648 in the 2018-2019 period.
Out of the total number of cases concluded, 30% of them were upheld after investigation.
In England as a whole, 126,000 complaints were logged, which is a rise from the 2021-2022 period’s 120,000 recorded. 32% of these complaints were upheld, which is the lowest since available comparable records commenced in the 2016-2017 period.
In the article, the Royal College of GPs puts the blame on the government’s failure to appropriately apply funding.
The Department of Health and Social Care stated:
“We have more than 2,000 additional doctors and 31,000 extra staff than in 2019. We are making progress to boost NHS dental services and the number of children seen by NHS dentists rose by 14% last year.
“Compared to the previous year, 1.7 million more adults and 800,000 more children are receiving NHS dental care and further measures to improve access to NHS dentists through our dental recovery plan will be set out shortly.”
My two penneth
As always, complaints are blamed on lack of funding and allocation, where in actual fact I believe that fault can be applied within the healthcare system as well as outside of it.
Funding is vital, but can only be truly effective if it is spent wisely within a system which is incredibly bloated, with more management and hierarchy than the frontline staff who offer the actual care, from nursing, doctors appointments and dental care.
Proper examination and management of this would help to free up funds for more important areas.