Over the past year, the National Health Service (NHS) has faced an increase in the number of patient complaints regarding the activities of healthcare institutions, public media report.
Most of the complaints are related to queues to specialists and the use of quotas. The National Health Service (NHS) has also identified cases of quota circumvention in healthcare institutions.
The service oversees whether patients receive state-funded medical services in accordance with established procedures, essentially controlling how quotas are utilized. In most cases, patient complaints are justified, the NHS acknowledged, and a significant portion of them is related specifically to the appointment process for receiving services, that is, to queues.
In 2024, the NHS received over 800 complaints from residents, and in 2025, this number significantly increased: in the first nine months, 1,230 complaints about the activities of medical institutions were recorded. In most cases, patients are dissatisfied with how healthcare institutions manage appointments. Residents complain that the waiting times indicated on the website do not match the actual situation, as well as about refusals to schedule appointments with specialists on the grounds that quotas have run out and they should call back later, although such practices are unacceptable.
In 2024, there were about fifty such complaints, while in the first nine months of 2025, there were almost 700. In such cases, the service's task is primarily not to punish but to advise healthcare institutions, emphasizes the NHS: to negotiate and provide clarifications. Additionally, the NHS monitors whether quotas are being used properly. When discrepancies are identified in the information system, the service instructs healthcare institutions to correct the errors.
When comparing the first three quarters of 2024 with the same period in 2025, the number of discrepancies has noticeably increased. In monetary terms, this amounts to almost 2 million euros.
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