Child H, a three-year-old boy, was brought into the Emergency Department (ED) of a private hospital by his mother, having inhaled or swallowed a little building brick. They brought a similar piece with them. Child H was seen by a doctor, Dr W, who documented that he appeared well, with no signs of respiratory distress and a normal auscultation. Dr W arranged for him to have a chest x-ray, which both Dr W and a radiologist considered normal.

Complaints in health and social care: standards and guidelines for resolution and learning (2009) aims to provide a simple, consistent approach for staff who handle complaints, and for patients who raise complaints across all health and social care services.

Mr P, a 40-year-old office worker, had a long history of sino-nasal problems, and had even had a previous septoplasty operation. Soon after returning from a holiday, he consulted his GP, Dr A, with worsening blockage in the left side of his nose.

Mrs R, a 42-year old amateur opera singer, was admitted for an elective partial thyroidectomy under ENT consultant, Mr F.

Mr Y was a 25-year-old engineer with Type 1 diabetes. He attended his GP, Dr T, regularly for check-ups and on one occasion complained of pain in his left ear. He could not be sure how long it had been there, but thought the pain had come on about three months earlier, following a visit to the swimming pool with his children.

Mr C, a 59-year-old self employed painter and decorator, visited his GP surgery complaining of a sore throat and change in his voice, which was a little hoarse. He was otherwise generally well

E was a 12-year-old girl who had been complaining of earache for a week after coming back from an activity holiday in Spain. Despite taking paracetamol suspension, the pain persisted and her mother, Mrs K, brought her along to be reviewed by her regular GP, Dr T. E was well known to Dr T as he had seen her on a number of occasions with mild asthma. Dr T documented the history of pain in her right ear. She was noted to be apyrexial and systemically well, with a normal appetite.

Following a minor respiratory tract infection, Mr Y, a 54-year old postman, developed leftsided hearing loss. Mr Y was referred to a consultant ENT surgeon, Mr A, who confirmed a left-sided middle ear effusion.

Mrs H was a 45-year-old supervising school librarian. She went to see her GP, Dr P, and admitted she had been having hearing difficulties for more than eight months and had been suffering with quite bad right-sided earache too. Although he could find no abnormality on examination, Dr P referred Mrs H to ENT surgeon, Dr J.

Mr B, an experienced and highly respected otolaryngologist, arranged to perform a right middle meatal antrostomy and bilateral sinus washouts on a young woman (Miss Z) with severe sinusitis. The operation was scheduled to take place in a theatre he did not ordinarily use so he did not have the support of nurses familiar with ENT surgery.

Ms C was a young woman with learning difficulties admitted to hospital in the late 1980s with a history of frontal headaches, dizziness and staggering gait. The clerking doctor noted that she had been discharged from the ENT ward 19 days earlier after treatment for chronic otitis media.

Mr M suffered from excessive snoring. He’d had sleep studies which excluded sleep apnoea and been referred to Mr O, a consultant ENT surgeon with many years’ experience of treating sleep-related disorders. Mr O found Mr M to have a bulky palate, prominent tonsils and a long uvula. He advised uvulopharyngopalatoplasty.