§ Mr. McDonnellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many formal complaints were made by(a) patients and (b) their families against each of the London hospitals for the years (i) 1996, (ii) 1997, (iii) 1998 and (iv) 1999. [112683]
§ Ms StuartFigures on National Health Service complaints are not collected in the format requested. Data are collected for written complaints and by financial year. These figures are published annually in a statistical report, "Handling complaints: monitoring the NHS complaints procedures—England" and copies of the reports for 1996–97 and 1997–98 have been placed in the statistical section of the Library.
Data for these years was collected for NHS trusts and health authorities on the basis of the old NHS Executive Regional Office boundaries for North and South Thames. Figures for 1998–99 will be published later this month and will be based on the NHS Executive London Regional Office boundaries.