Characterising patient complaints in out-of-hours general practice: a retrospective cohort study in Ireland

Background Patient complaints can provide valuable insights into the quality and safety of clinical care. Studies examining the epidemiology of complaints in out-of-hours general practice internationally are limited.

Aim To characterise patient complaints in an out-of-hours general practice setting.

Design and setting Retrospective cohort study of patient complaints to an out-of-hours service provider in Dublin, Ireland, over a 5-year period (2011–2016). This comprises nurse-led telephone triage and GP consultations for patients with urgent problems.

Method A modified version of the UK Healthcare Complaints Analysis Tool (HCAT) was utilised to code complaints, which were reviewed independently in duplicate by two academic GPs.

Results Of 445 598 telephone contacts, 303 085 resulted in face-to-face GP consultations. Of 234 patients who made 298 complaints, 185 (79%) related to GP care. The remainder related to nurse triage, other staff, and management issues. A total of 109 (46%) related to children aged ≤18 years, and 134 (58%) of complainants were female. There were 0.61 complaints per 1000 GP consultations. Most complaints (n = 126, 42%) were in relation to clinical care problems, largely diagnosis and prescribing. Common themes included unmet management expectations and clinical examination dissatisfaction. Inter-rater reliability was 90% (κ statistic 0.84, 95% confidence interval = 0.80 to 0.88). Following internal investigation, 158 (85%) of GP-related complaints were managed effectively by the out-of-hours service.

Conclusion The majority of complaints related to clinical care problems and were successfully managed locally. Expectation management may be an important way to mitigate the risk of complaints.