I totally agree that complaints should be encouraged where justified, but thoroughly rebuffed when they're not. In a previous job, I had to investigate and respond to complaints in a hospital. The responses all went out in the Chief Exec's name and often when i'd drafted something along the lines of 'don't be so ridiculous, you/your Mum was drunk/violent/dying when you brought her in and our nurses did their best for you/her', he would water it right down and usually accept some of the blame on behalf of the member of staff complained about. I know NHS managers aren't very popular among the masses, but some of us do try. As a little aside, why does everyone automatically think that people become NHS managers with the intention of making things worse for patients and staff - almost always it's for the opposite reason?