We have seen some small changes in where concerns come from. Members of the public continued to raise more than half the concerns we received, and that number is slightly down on last year's. Concerns from employers, police and other enforcement organisations, and from self-declarations, have decreased. The numbers from all other sources have increased, with the most notable increase in concerns being those from other healthcare professionals.
Overall, there were 2,577 concerns closed at this stage in 2021/2022 (84% of all concerns raised). This compares with 2,380 in 2020/21 (79% of all concerns raised) and 1,405 in 2019/20 (47% of all concerns raised).
Throughout the pandemic we took a risk-based approach in cases where patient safety was not an issue. We either treated these concerns as intelligence we could use in our inspection work, or we resolved them through our network of inspectors when this was appropriate. We ended 1,056 concerns by sharing the intelligence with our inspection colleagues in 2021/22 and we concluded a similar number, 1,047, in 2020/21.
We closed 1,017 concerns with no further action in 2021/22. This is a decrease on the 1,062 cases closed in 2020/21. The number of concerns that we suggested another organisation could handle went up significantly – 455 in 2021/22 compared with 248 in 2020/21. We ended 47 concerns with guidance and two concerns with a voluntary agreement – in 2020/21 we closed 23 cases with guidance and there were no voluntary agreements. We will continue to analyse our data to look for trends and to understand the nature of the concerns we close early in the process. We will share this information more widely to help people wanting to raise a concern understand what we can and cannot deal with.
We will continue to analyse our data to look for trends and to understand the nature of the concerns we close early in the process. We will share this information more widely to help people wanting to raise a concern understand what we can and cannot deal with.
Following investigations we closed 77 cases with guidance, and 113 with no further action, and we reached a voluntary agreement with five professionals in this reporting year. This is compared with 118 cases closed with guidance and 214 closed with no further action in 2020/21.
This decrease is because the types of cases we refer for investigation are becoming more complex and are taking longer to investigate. These cases include those that involve new and emerging areas of pharmacy – such as independent prescribing and online pharmacies. We are using specialist advice to help manage these cases. As a result, we are starting to see an impact on the number of cases being referred to our investigating committee and fitness to practise committee.
We have seen more concerns referred to the investigating committee and fitness to practise committee in the last year. In total, 79 concerns were referred to the committees in 2021/22 – an increase on the 59 referred in 2020/21.
The total number of concerns going to an investigating committee increased from 24 in 2020/21 to 38 in 2021/22. The number of concerns where an investigating committee issued advice was five compared with four the