In healthcare, complaints aren’t setbacks – they are vital feedback loops for improvement. To foster safer, more responsive care, we need to be proactive about promoting a positive complaints culture.
Here are some practical steps, backed by recent UK evidence, to make that cultural shift:
What we should do
- Encourage all feedback – including concerns and complaints, as opportunities to learn, improve, and prevent recurrence.
- Make complaint routes clear – provide information through leaflets, websites, posters, and verbal reminders about how patients or carers can raise issues.
- Ensure that raising concerns feels safe and non-intimidating – reduce perceived barriers so people aren’t afraid of negative consequences when speaking up.
What the research tells us
- The Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman emphasises that leadership visibility and commitment are essential for creating a learning culture that values complaints and feedback. Without this, organisations often fall back into defensive practices.
- A YouGov-commissioned study by Healthwatch England found that although roughly 24% of people reported experiencing poor NHS care in the past year, only ~9% made a formal complaint. Over half took no action, often due to lack of belief that their concern would lead to improvement or that they would be heard.
- Research from the NIHR shows that patient feedback, both positive and negative, is collected widely, but many NHS organisations struggle to use that feedback effectively to drive service improvements. Feedback often ends up as numbers without stories, missing opportunities to inform change.
- The Professional Standards Authority’s recent research on complaints to healthcare professional regulators found significant barriers: poor communication about processes, limited support for complainants, and low awareness.
Why it matters
- A robust complaints culture helps identify systemic issues before they lead to harm.
- Increases trust: patients are more likely to engage, speak up, and work with healthcare providers when they believe concerns will be treated seriously.
- Supports transparency and learning, which is central to regulatory expectations (CQC Regulation 16) and to patient-centred care.
If we embed these practices – clear complaint pathways, accessible information, leadership owning the culture, and using feedback for real change, we move toward a healthcare system that not only treats illness, but listens, learns, and improves.