At all levels of society there is a growing demand for greater transparency and accountability. Professional medical services have been particularly affected by these changing attitudes and, in response to this, the systems for managing patient complaints continue to evolve. Managing these complaints has become an increasingly time consuming and stressful part of a paediatrician's duties. Whilst clear and concise explanations and good medical recording keeping are an important part of patient care and can help to avoid the misunderstanding so that cause patients to complaints and litigate, when complaints are made it is very important that paediatricians have a clear understanding of the hospital complaints procedures so that they can contribute effectively to the process and ensure that patients and their families receive timely and appropriate responses to their complaints.