ABSTRACT
One of the few achievements of the NHS complaints procedures before 1996 was to unite demoralised adversaries in a sense of frustration and exhaustion. Doctors’ representatives at Local Medical Committee conferences and patients’ organisations had expressed discontent over a period of many years. Where they existed, the complaints procedures were obscure, difficult and regarded by both patients and doctors as potentially unfair. Rising numbers of allegations of clinical negligence at the time may, in part, have reflected patients’ sense of obfuscation. However, the continuation of this trend, since changes in the system that have been introduced since 1996, is more difficult to explain.
