Rising complaints against doctors due to changed patient expectations, researchers say

Numbers of complaints against doctors have risen as a result of broad cultural changes in society, including changing expectations, nostalgia for a “golden age” of healthcare, and a desire to raise grievances altruistically, researchers have said.

A study funded by the General Medical Council looked into the factors behind the increase in inquiries it received from members of the public about doctors’ fitness to practice.1 The number rose from 3615 in 2007 to 6154 in 2012.

A team of researchers led by Julian Archer, senior clinical lecturer at Plymouth University, concluded that the rise was due to changes in expectations, attitudes, and behaviour, rather than from any identifiable discrete cause.

They said that a cultural environment had developed in which people were more likely to raise grievances. Complaint networks and social media had increased the number of ways people could access information about how to seek redress, and there was a growing trend “for complaint making to be construed as an altruistic activity,” they said.

The researchers also said that there had been changes in the public’s perception of doctors and healthcare provision. “Patients have taken greater ownership of their health, becoming better informed, developing higher expectations and treating doctors with less deference than in the past,” they said.

“Changes to provision, particularly in the primary care sector, have impacted upon how patients see their doctors,” they added. “Our analysis suggested that there is a nostalgia for a supposed golden age of medical care, in which patients always saw the same doctor, with whom they had an on-going relationship which engendered good care and interpersonal understanding between patient and practitioner.”

Archer and his team also said that the high proportion of complaints relating to issues outside the GMC’s remit indicated that the public had a poor understanding of NHS complaints processes and the GMC’s role. “Our data clearly suggest that it is difficult for members of the public to know where to address their complaints, and that this confusion may be driving people towards long-standing organisations such as the GMC, as it may be more recognisable,” they said.

Anthony Omo, the GMC’s director of fitness to practise, reacted to the findings in a blog.2 “Making a complaint about a doctor can be stressful and it is important that concerns are raised with the right organisation so patients are not passed from pillar to post,” he said. “We know that there is still more to do to create a quick and simple complaints process that works in the best interests of patients. The challenge for us as a regulator, and the rest of the health service, is to make sure that patients can reach the organisation best able to deal with their concerns as soon as possible.”

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