Complaints against the NHS have risen 8% rise since last year, a report has shown.
The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) data reported 3,100 written complaints a week totalling 162,100 for the year 2011 to 2012.
But direct comparison to 2010 to 2011 figures is affected by the lack of data submission for the 2010 to 2011 period from 23 NHS Foundation Trusts.
The rise was just 1% when comparing the 501 organisations that supplied data both years and illustrated an increase from 148,900 to 150,900 complaints.
The Data on Written Complaints in the NHS, 2011-12 report presents figures from NHS hospital and community health services and from family health services.
Tim Straughan, chief executive of HSCIC, said: "This is the first year it has been mandatory for foundation trusts to submit data about the number of written complains they receive, helping to give a fuller picture of the volume of complaints made in writing to the health service.
"Having said that, I would encourage greater input from family health services in future primary care submissions to ensure this picture can be brought into even sharper focus."
NHS trust complaints by service area showed 46% were about the medical profession, including hospital doctors and surgeons, while 22% were about nurses, midwives and health visitors.
And a further 46% were about all aspects of clinical treatment; an increase of 13% from last year's data.
For family health services 54% of 54,900 written complaints were about medical service. This has decreased from a 61% proportion last year.
And clinical service prompted 36% to complain showing an 11% increase.
David Stout, deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: "An increase in the number of complaints doesn't necessarily mean that patients are less satisfied with their care.
"Although it sounds peculiar, a rise in complaints data can actually mean that patients feel more engaged with their local NHS and want to work with it to improve. It's also a sign that patients are confident their concerns will be listened to and acted upon.
"We also need to keep these figures in proportion. The NHS sees more than 1m patients every 36 hours and performs hundreds of millions of treatments every year, and only a very small proportion of these ever give cause for complaint."
He added robust systems were crucial to learn from occasions where things went wrong.
