Annual report on NHS complaints
2024 to 2025

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides statistics on complaints received by NHS Scotland organisations from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. A complaint is defined as an 'an expression of dissatisfaction by one or more members of the public about an organisation's action or lack of action, or about the standard of service provided by or on behalf of the organisation'. All organisations follow The NHS Model Complaints Handling Procedure in responding to complaints.

Note that the data used to generate these statistics were gathered and collated from both Territorial and Special NHS Boards by the Scottish Government. These organisations also report individually on the complaints and other types of feedback they have received and acted upon each year. For Territorial Boards this also includes reporting on the complaints received directly by Independent Contractors contributing to the provision of primary care services in the Board area, such as General Medical Practitioners (GPs) or those providing dental, ophthalmic or pharmacy services. These contractors are themselves responsible for managing and responding to feedback, including complaints, about their services. A collated list of the links to these reports for 2024/25 is also provided as part of this release.

Main points

• The total number of complaints received by NHS Scotland increased by 3% from 33,273 in 2023/24 to 34,220 in 2024/25. 
• The number of complaints received directly by NHS Territorial and Special Boards increased by 3% from 23,876 in 2023/24 to 24,531 in 2024/25. 
• The number of complaints received by Independent Contractorsincreased by 3% to 9,689 (previously 9,397) in 2024/25. Of this total, the number received by Independent GP Practices increased by 8% to 7,513 (previously 6,949) but those received by Independent Pharmacy contractors decreased by 23% to 1,081 (previously 1,406). 
• The total number of complaints that were closed in 2024/25 by NHS boards showed an increase of 6% (from 21,599 to 22,838). This does not include those received by Independent Contractors, cases where the complaint was withdrawn or cases where a third party made a complaint without the required consent of the patient involved. Of these
  • 52% (11,963) were closed at Stage One (early resolution) of the handling procedure. A decrease of 1 percentage point on the previous year. 
  • 38% (8,683) were closed at Stage Two (investigation), without further escalation,an increase of 2 percentage points on the previous year. 
  • the remaining 10% (2,192) were closed at Stage Two (investigation)following further escalation, a decrease of 1 percentage point on the previous year. 
• Compared to 2023/24, the percentage of complaints that were upheld at Stage One (39%) increased by 2 percentage points. The percentage of complaints upheld at Stage Two (23%) without further escalation decreased by 2 percentage points. The percentage of Stage Two complaints that were upheld following escalation (28%) has decreased by 2 percentage points.
• Within target timescales, 73% of Stage One complaints were closed on time within five working days (a decrease of 2 percentage points), 43% of Stage Two complaints (no escalation involved) were closed on time within the 20 working days (a decrease of 4 percentage points) and 46% of Stage Two escalated complaints were closed on time within 20 working days (an increase of 4 percentage points). 

Background

This set of statistics cover complaints received about hospital and community health services, family health services, special boards, and national and support organisations. It includes the number of complaints received; the time taken to deal with complaints and the outcome of complaints. The individual NHS Board's Complaints and Feedback reports often include more detail about issues raised; actions taken; service areas and staff groups who were the subject of complaints etc, though this varies between the NHS Boards. 

The complaints process provides two opportunities to resolve (close) complaints internally: Early resolution (Stage One), and Investigation (Stage Two). More details are found in The NHS Model Complaints Handling Procedure.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be January 2027.