The number of written complaints received by the NHS rose by almost 5% last year, but the number of complaints against pharmacists was very small.
NHS Digital figures reveal that 208,415 written complaints were received by the NHS in 2016–2017, an average of 571 every day.
There was a much bigger increase in complaints about primary care services, rising by 9.7% last year to 90,579 from 82,559 the previous year.
Secondary care services received 117,836 written complaints last year, compared with 116,180 the previous year, an increase of 1.4%.
Within primary care, just over 1% of complaints were about pharmacists (1,051 of 94,040). Complaints can be duplicated as they are recorded under a number of topics and across a number of professions, which is why this total is greater than the number of new complaints.
The statistics do not give details on the content of any of the complaints.