New figures show that more than 2,000 formal complaints were made against NHS services in Suffolk and North East Essex last year. The 23% increase mirrors a national trend that has hit record levels.
The big picture: NHS England figures reveal 2,123 written complaints were lodged against hospital and community health services at the NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board in the year to March, reflecting the immense pressure NHS workers are under.
The Garrett Anderson Centre at Ipswich HospitalOliver Rouane-WilliamsIpswich.co.uk
Why it matters: The surge in complaints indicates growing frustration with local health services, with three-quarters of all complaints being found to have merit:
21% were fully upheld, meaning investigators agreed completely with the complaint.
54% were partially upheld, where some but not all aspects of the complaint were found to be justified.
The remaining complaints were dismissed.
Zooming out: The local increase reflects a wider national picture, with written complaints across England reaching 241,922 last year – the highest figure since records began in 2016-17. The 5% rise has led to Labour branding the NHS "broken", while health think tank The King's Fund says patient frustration is rising across the country.
The key issues: Communication problems topped the list of concerns, followed by patient care quality and staff behaviour and values.
What you can do: Louise Ansari, chief executive of Healthwatch England, says patients should know they have the right to complain, explaining: "Patients appreciate the pressures health and care services are under. However, the public deserves a complaints system that is easy to navigate, timely, empathetic."
Looking ahead: Healthwatch, which operates independently from the NHS, is launching new research to examine:
Who feels confident enough to formally complain
What stops other patients from raising concerns
How the complaints system could be improved
The bottom line: If you need to raise concerns about NHS care in Suffolk or North East Essex, you can contact Healthwatch for independent advice on navigating the complaints process.
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The National Crime Agency's crackdown on high street businesses suspected of links to organised crime has made headlines in Shrewsbury but remains conspicuously absent in Ipswich, despite remarkably similar retail patterns.
A pattern emerging elsewhere
While Ipswich residents have yet to witness raids on local businesses, a stark scene is unfolding elsewhere: officers forcing their way into brightly-coloured barber shops, vape stores, minimarts, candy stores and phone repair shops that have proliferated across town centres.
Last month, the National Crime Agency (NCA) coordinated 265 raids on such premises across England and Wales as part of Operation Machinize, targeting high street businesses suspected of being fronts for international crime gangs – but it remains unclear if Suffolk, or Ipswich, has been part of this operation.
Oliver Rouane-WilliamsIpswich.co.uk
Shrewsbury and Ipswich: towns with similar profiles
In Shrewsbury, a market town not dissimilar to Ipswich, officers detained two Kurdish asylum seekers during raids on barber shops, seizing thousands of pounds in cash and illicit vapes. The intelligence suggested these establishments were linked to money laundering, illegal immigration and drug dealing.
The parallels between Shrewsbury and Ipswich are difficult to ignore. Both are historic county towns with traditional market squares, and a mix of independent and chain retailers. Both have experienced the same influx of barber shops, vape stores, minimarts, candy stores and phone repair shops on their high street.
Yet while Shrewsbury has seen decisive action, Ipswich residents have yet to witness any comparable enforcement activity. At least not visibly. And if it has, it has yet to make any difference.
The Ipswich landscape
According to commercial property analysts Green Street, the average number of barbers per person in England and Wales has doubled in the past decade.
Walk through Ipswich town centre and the changing retail landscape is evident – multiple barber shops, vape outlets, phone repair shops and sweet shops often within yards of each other, typically with very few visible customers.
It is important to note that we are not suggesting any specific businesses in Ipswich are engaged in illegal activity. The presence of these shops alone does not indicate wrongdoing, and many could be legitimate businesses.
But questions should be asked. And questions are being asked – repeatedly – by residents.
The scale of the problem
The National Crime Agency estimates that £12 billion in illicit cash is laundered in the UK annually, with lots of it flowing through criminal front organisations on high streets.
These businesses appeared to surge as shop vacancies grew following the pandemic, creating opportunities for criminal gangs to establish themselves in plain sight.
The suspicious signs are easy to spot: businesses claiming implausible income levels, unpaid utility bills despite supposed high turnover, and the sale of illicit products like illegal vapes and tobacco.
In Greater Manchester, linked mini-marts were found to be staffed by asylum seekers, some working illegally, with hidden compartments concealing contraband.
What Operation Machinize uncovered
During Operation Machinize, authorities discovered cannabis farms, seized Class A drugs, arrested 35 people and questioned 55 suspected illegal immigrants. Three potential victims of modern slavery were identified. Bank accounts worth over £1 million were frozen and £40,000 in cash seized.
Detective Inspector Daniel Fenn, who led raids in Shrewsbury as part of the operation, said: "Members of the public are angry. They can see these fronts are there. The criminals feel they are hidden here. They think they can come to sleepy areas and won't be found."
The same could easily be said of Ipswich.
The pattern of exploitation is particularly concerning – the NCA believes some shops are used as fronts for drug-trafficking, people-smuggling, modern slavery and child sexual exploitation. In 2023, it secured the conviction of one Iranian Kurdish barber shop owner who was using his London premises as a base for smuggling 10,000 people to the UK in small boats.
Impact on legitimate businesses
Legitimate barbers are calling for a registration scheme and stricter regulation. Gareth Penn, chief executive of the Hair and Barber Council, highlighted how illegal barbers have led to fungal infections from improperly cleaned equipment.
More importantly, though, is the damage being done to genuine businesses that cannot compete with those avoiding costs and taxes, and those that cannot find suitable high street premises.
The damage is significant and potentially long-lasting.
Will Ipswich be next?
For Ipswich, the question now is whether Operation Machinize will visibly extend to Suffolk – or indeed, whether it already has without public knowledge.
Unlike local police forces, the National Crime Agency is exempt from Freedom of Information requests, making it impossible for journalists or the public to determine how many Ipswich businesses, if any, have been investigated.
This distinction is important.
While local police forces handle everyday law enforcement, the NCA was specifically created to tackle serious and organised crime that extends across police force boundaries, international borders, or requires specialist capabilities.
Their involvement signals that these high street businesses are not merely local issues but part of sophisticated criminal networks operating nationally and internationally.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis has stated that "high street crime undermines our security, our borders, and the confidence of our communities", promising "decisive action" to bring those responsible to justice.
The road ahead
There are concerns about the effectiveness of current measures. Of the 265 raids conducted, only 10 shops have been shut down permanently. Many businesses raided were back operating within minutes of officers leaving.
The challenge for authorities extends beyond individual shops to dismantling the organised crime networks behind them – networks that may have been profiting in plain sight for years on our high streets. While local police forces can target individual businesses, only the NCA has the mandate and resources to tackle the international networks behind them.
For Ipswich residents concerned about these issues, the prospect of action against suspicious businesses cannot come soon enough. However, due to the secretive nature of NCA operations, we may never know the full extent of their activities in our town – only their results, if and when they choose to make them public.
