Social media drives up complaints over medical practices in The UK

Complaints to the medical practritioners' regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC), has doubled over the last five years with patients discussing their treatment on Twitter and Facebook being one of the main drivers for the rise, The Telegraph reported.

A report compiled for the GMC to investigate the reasons behind the large increase in complaints had found that patients were now showing less deference to their doctor and were more inclined to contact the regulator.

The period between 2007 and 2012 saw complaints from the public to the GMC double, reaching around 6,000.

However, full investigation happened in only 1,000 of these with only a handful resulting in formal Fitness to Practice hearings.

According to the study by the Peninsula Medical School at Plymouth University, a combination of factors was behind the rise in complaints.

Social media and especially, Twitter and Facebook, made for development of communities where patients could discuss their treatment and easily exchange information on how to complain.

However, the majority of the public's complaints did not concern individuals but focused on standards of care more generally. According to the authors, these should have been filed with the National Health Scheme organisation responsible or to the Care Quality Commission.

The number of complaints shot up from 5,168 in 2007 to 10,347 in 2012, with the GMC noting that social media and online forums encouraged patients to discuss their experiences and emboldened them to lodge complaints.

According to Dr Julian Archer, from the Plymouth University and the report's lead author, the reasons for the increase in complaints was ''hugely'' complex and reflected a ''combination of increased public awareness, media influence, the role of social media technology and wider changes in society," The Independent reported.

He added the report further indicated that there was much to do to improve the wider complaint-handling system, so that complaints made by the general public about their doctors were directed to the appropriate authorities.

According to Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, while more patients complained and found it easier to do so, this in no way suggested falling standards. He added, that the challenge for the GMC and other organisations was to find better ways to deal with these complaints, such as local level resolutions.

He said the large number of complaints they received that were not about medical practitioners suggested that the current medical care system was not working as well as it should.