GPs faced a steep increase in patient complaints over the last year as services came under increasing pressure, according to new figures.

GPs and dentists received a total of 8,000 more written complaints in the year from 2016 to 2017 than the previous year, NHS Digital reported.

This represented a 9.7% increase as the total reached 90,600, according to the figures.

About half the complaints were upheld in full or part.

There was a much smaller increase in complaints about secondary care – of just 1.4%, according to the figures. There were 117,800 of these complaints.

The analysis shows the largest increase in complaints were in Lancashire and the West Midlands.

Among complaints about secondary care, some 66,500 were lodged directly against doctors, an increase of 7.4%. There was also a 9.8% increase in complaints about nurses, reaching 36,800.

Royal College of GPs chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said the figures highlighted the urgent need to deliver promises to invest in general practice.

She said: “The family doctor service has experienced almost a decade of under-investment and as a result, GPs and our teams are buckling under the pressures of a huge increase in patient numbers but a shortage of doctors to care for them.

“Inevitably, this will occasionally impact on the service we can deliver and this can be frustrating for patients – and GPs.

“The GP-patient relationship is unique in the NHS and GPs are consistently ranked amongst the most trusted healthcare professionals in the UK. We want to keep it that way.”