ABSTRACT
An important element of governance in the public sector relates to complaints procedures. All organizations in the National Health Service in the UK are required to have a clearly specified set of procedures for dealing with complaints from service users. Such complaints are officially welcomed as a way of obtaining feedback from patients and as a means of learning lessons from poor practice. In this chapter, Penelope Lacey, a manager in the podiatry service of an NHS Trust, describes the complaints procedures in her organization and gives an account of her experience of operating them.
