Complaints in gynaecology in England: an effective learning tool

The highest increase of 13.4% in complaints registered in hospital and community services in England, was observed in 2009-2010, since the beginning of data collection from 1997. We observed that complaints in gynaecology have remained a comparatively less explored area against its obstetric counterpart. We investigated the increasing trend observed in our gynaecology services of a district general hospital, over a period of 5 years. All complaints registered were subjected to a retrospective qualitative analysis and causes or contributory factors were classified in a standardised way, as followed by the National Health Services (NHS) Information Centre. Inappropriate communication was responsible for 38.6% of complaints lodged, followed by administrative or organisational errors accounting for 33.9% of complaints. A significant proportion of complainants had recorded more than three sequential events, which is recognised as a potential opportunity to prevent escalation of complaints.