There were 208,400 written complaints received by the NHS during 2016/172 – up 4.9% on the previous year, NHS Digital figures show.
The figures mean on average 571 written complaints were made every day.
The report, entitled Data on Written Complaints in the NHS, 2016/17, shows numbers of complaints about both primary and secondary care.
It shows a 9.7% increase in written complaints to GP and dental practices compared with the previous year. In 2016/17, there were 90,600 primary care complaints, up from 82,600 in 2015/16.
Around half (49.8%) of the resolved complaints made to primary care providers were upheld. 37.5% were fully upheld, 12.4% were partially upheld and 50.2% were not upheld.
Of the total number of primary care complaints involving a service area, 83.2% related to GP surgeries, while 14.6% related to dental practices.
The report shows there was a 1.4% year-on-year increase in secondary care complaints with 117,800 complaints received in 2016/17, up from 116,200 in 2015/1611, but a smaller proportion of resolved secondary care complaints were fully upheld than the previous year.
In 2016/17, 35.8% (40,100) of secondary care complaints were fully upheld, compared with 38.5% (39,800) in 2015/16. The number of complaints partially upheld increased from 26.4% (27,300) in 2015/16 to 28.9% (32,300) in 2016/17.
